United Swords
by BLS Zekken
Summary: A group of girls, having a normal life, end up getting involved in the death trap that Sword Art Online is. Will the adventure gods smile them? Will they, being alone and hated, be able to sort they own fate out?
1. Chapter 1: Hiding from the world

**So yes, I made this. I was looking through the fics and I found the lack of Rain important. Maybe it's just me not having read enough, but I wrote this, so I'll just leave it here. In the development of this, if I dont run out of inspiration, you might find references to other animes, nit sure yet, but not enough to really call it a crossover. So hope you all enjoy it.**

 **P.D: not really important, but you all probably all know how all the main characters look. For that little NPC girl, I was looking for something cute, and the description that fit the most for me was Lotte, from Little Witch Academia.**

 **20:24 PM December 3rd, Horunka Village, Floor 1, Aincrad.**

The man her little sister admired was out of his mind. At least she thought her sister admired him, knowing her sister's likes from the countless interviews, even when they haven't seen each other. At least she had seen her as a baby, but now she was almost 14, so her unknown related would be around 10 out there. But seriously, having ten thousand people dive into a virtual world to let them die? That was messed up.

Those thoughts came across her mind as she leveled up. The 'Level Up' window showed with a little explosion of confetti-like particles, as if it was something to celebrate. "I guess I should call it a day." The girl sheathed her one-handed sword and faced the entrance of the dungeon of the first floor of the flying castle, Aincrad, while focused on his skill points. Once again, she invested her skill point in Dexterity. She was focusing, even if she didn't know why, in landing fast and precise strikes, rather than overwhelmingly strong ones. Her one-handed sword skill showed a progress of 59.5/1000. Enough to unlock her last skill, 'Slant'.

"Phew, that was a long day! I should get back to the inn, otherwise I won't have any room left!"

When she left the dungeon, she thanked the breath of fresh air entering her throat. She didn't really breath, nor could she have sore throat(which she would need back IRL due to her work), not even after the night of tears the first one was. She wiped all the thought about the sociopath that had put them all through this, and calmly walked towards the lights in the distance.

To be honest, I don't know how long this will take. Now that I think about it, what do I have back there if it isn't singing and that maid cafe? A sudden shape colliding with her when she arrived at the town stopped her thoughts, and the player she collided with staggered a bit, but soon looked around nervously.

"Sorry, I was daydreaming."

"I don't have time for ya now." the player, seemingly female too, ran away. There is no need to be rude. The sight of two men walking after her first confused her. First she thought they could be some kind of bodyguards, but soon she noticed the shady gaze in those two.

"What the….?"

The girl in a robe turned in the next street, leading to a dead end. When the two men entered the same place 'by coincidence', the sword user got a really unpleasant feeling in her stomach. Are the going to… No way, nobody would hurt someone else here. Ah, screw it, I have nothing else to do.

With those thoughts, she followed the three into the dark passage. As soon as she looked around, she saw the two men trying to intimidate the girl. "C'mon, we only asked about a certain beta tester. You are an info broker, aren't you?"

"Of course I am, ya moron! I just said I won't sell that! Havin' heard that stupid speech of yer leader, I can't expect ya to do anythin' nice!"

"How pitiful, I guess we will have to get the info by force!"

The girl, even while hooded, showed how she gritted her teeth, with both anger and resignation. The sword-user had heard three weeks ago, almost at the start, that someone's HP wouldn't drop in a safe area like a town, but the feeling is scary enough for most player to hand their equipment right away. The mysterious girl in front of her was considerably brave, to be honest. Well, I don't have anything to lose.

"Hey, you two!"

The two men faced the direction where the voice came, kind of worried at first, but laughing when they saw the female in front of them.

"Ah, don't worry, onee-san! We were just doing some 'marketing'" the two smiled as if they were not intending to attack a defenseless person.

"You two are out of your mind."

The smile in their faces faded, with an angry expression taking its place. Not that Rain had really insulted them, but some people are incredibly sensitive with their self-esteem.

"Are you saying we are crazy? You will regret that!"

The first man drew a one-handed sword. The other one did the same with a curved one. Then, they both jumped at her, confident in the fact that they wouldn't kill anyone, only scare them. The girl try to swing her sword, but, still being a complete noob, did not unsheat it. The man's sword glew blue, something she had not achieved even once, but she dropped to the ground to dodge. Then, she swung the sword, still sheathed, at her enemy. In that world, pain wasn't real. In its place, a numbing sensation could be felt. When the head was hit, the feeling was really, really unpleasant. "Seyaaa!"

The hit landed directly at the enemy's head, and he staggered a few steps, and touched his forehead with his hand. She was going to do the proper with the other man, but while he was facing her, a broom was swung and hit him in the back. The mysterious girl had picked it from the floor. They were some kind of an excuse of a spear. He was slightly pushed.

"Ah! Fucking….. Bitch! I will make you regret!"

They picked up their swords and rushed to the plaza, disappearing in the crowd. She felt a stare on the back of her head, and she turned around to see the girl that was getting up. Their first conversation started with a simple question.

"Why?" the girl calmly asked still with angry expression. Seemingly, she didn't like depending on others. "Why did ya jump in?"

"You see, I saw you back there being chased, and I got a really bad feeling, so I tailed you all and ended here."

"I don't really know whether to say that was really nice of ya or really stupid. How did ya expect to get outta here fightin' two level 4 players?"

"I think being level 6 could help. Anyways, are you okay? Did they hurt you?"

The mysterious girl's eyes widened slightly as she praised her savior, something that she hardly ever did, not even with her only friend. "Yes, untouched. But whoa! Level 6? Yer only a little behind the clearers. They are between level 8 and 10. I stand here at 4."

"Don't say it like that! I only train everyday. It takes ages, though. Do you know how that guy made his weapon glow? That seems to fasten things."

Now the girl's eyes widened to their top.

"Yer tellin' me that you got all the way up to level 6 without usin' a sword skill?!"

The girl hanged her sword to her waist once again and gave her a confused smile.

"Sword skill? What are those?"

The facepalm of the girl in the robe was loud enough for her to hear. She say something the sword user didn't understand.

"Yer a total noob, aren't ya?"

"Noob?"

The second facepalm landed.

"Sit here, I'll explain. I owe ya one, and I don't like owin' people. What is yer name?"

"It is usual to say someone's name before asking, don't you know?"

The mysterious girl looked at the sword user with a little frown, that reminded her how little she knew the girl, and that she shouldn't tease her.

"Hmm, yer right. My bad, I am Argo, the best info broker around!"

"Did your parents really call you Argo?"

Third facepalm. At that rate, she would end up hurting herself. The robbed girl nervously replied.

"The name ya input when you start the game! Ya don't use yer real name here."

"Ahh, that makes sense. I should have know when I saw someone named 'XaXa'. Do you really want to know my name?"

"Of course, I need to know my contacts."

"Well then, my name is Rain!"

For the first time, the sword user called Rain noticed a smile in the info broker's face. Now she looks more like a person I would like to be friends with.

"If ya have time, I will explain the basics to ya."

Rain sat down next to Argo, and she explained. After half an hour, and at least ten facepalms more, they were done explaining.

"So, let me see if I got this correctly. I have to pose in a certain way to get those skills to start?"

Argo smiled in a happy way while she let out a little laugh.

"I would call it posin', but ya got it."

"Thank you, Argo-san! I will head to the inn."

"Wait, Re-chan!"

Rain she turned around once again to look at Argo.

"What is it?"

"I feel like I want to help ya back, so I will give ya some info for free. Listen, in the near end of the town, there is a little house. Inside it, you will find a NPC. She will give ya a glass of water. Accept it and the quest 'Secret medicine of the forest' will start. The NPC will give ya some instructions, I don't know which. The important thing is the reward. A sword called 'Anneal Blade'. One of my customers told me it would be useful until floor 3."

Rain looked at Argo. Why is she telling me this? I thought info brokers asked for money in exchange for info.

"Feel honored, Re-chan! I won't treat ya for free next time!"

"O-Okay, Argo-chan! Thank you! Dosvedanya!"

"See ya!"

With those words, Argo faded in the crowd. Rain stood there deciding whether to go for the sword now, in the middle of the night, or go the following day. Taking into account that she kind of wanted to show up at the boss fight, she decided to go for it. Hmm, I didn't really get the hang of it listening from that roof. As strange as the girl was, she had a strange attraction for high places. They made her feel confident. I want to look at that boss. Plus, I will explore the next floor when they are done. She entered the outer part of the city. Between all the inhabited buildings, a little house had a warm light glowing out of the windows. It seemed like if in the game there was some kind of money difference. The house in front of her looked like the one belonging to a poor family. "That has to be it."

She approached the door and knocked it. Soon after, a woman, looking in her late thirties, opened the door with a bitter smile.

"Oh, sweetheart. It's late. Come in, I will treat you to something to drink."

"Thank you."

They both entered the house. It was a small place, mainly made of brick. She had a little closet and a cooking place full of things. In the middle of the room there was a table with four chairs, in one of which Rain sat down.

"I am really sorry, I wasn't expecting anyone, so I don't have any kind of food now. All I can offer is a glass of water."

Remembering what Argo had told her, the girl accepted the offer, and soon after the glass reached her hand, she heard a weak but loud cough. Can a NPC get sick? I think I should just show concern.

"Is anyone sick, miss?"

The NPC turned around and showed an irreal expression of sadness. Until that day, it had been impossible for them to recreate perfect feelings.

"Ah, you mean the coughing? It's nothing. My daughter has been ill for a time now. Nothing seems to work."

Even knowing that they were not real people, Rain started to feel really sorry for them.

"Is there anything that I can make to help you?"

"I don't really want to impose, but there is actually something. Far to the west, there is a forest where some deadly carnivorous plant spawns. They are called "Little Nepenthes". The legends say that when one of them has bloomed, you can obtain a unique medicine by slaying it. Sadly, I don't have the means to fight for it."

"Don't worry, I will get it for you."

The expression of the NPC woman turned from an unrealistic sad face to an unrealistic smile. The sudden change surprised Rain. That girl, Argo, had told her that she shouldn't get surprised by extreme expressions, that was something the game didn't recreate nicely. In that moment, she was witnessing that.

"Really?! Thank you! But it is still night, you can sleep here and go tomorrow."

"I already have plans for tomorrow, so I will be going tonight. Sorry to keep you waiting, but I will be back in about two or three hours."

"If you have plans for tomorrow, I won't stop you. There is one thing you need to know though. Of all the monsters that spawn, the one you are looking for is rare. Very rare. You will be able to identify it by the flower that blooms in its head."

"Thank you, miss. I will be coming back soon."

While she opened the door, she wondered why she had been so polite to a person that didn't really exist. It should be a habit from the maid cafe she worked on. She hurriedly checked the inventory. Five HP potions, two SPD potions, one hiding potion, plus a teleport crystal for emergencies. With that and my equipment, I should be set for it. Those thoughts continued to boil inside her head for half an hour, until she arrived at the forest. She unsheathed her sword as a measure of safety. She was pretty self-confident on her swordplay, but this was a great opportunity to check the sword skills out. Looking at her skill tree, she had unlocked both the one-hit skill 'Vertical' and the the one-hit skill 'Vorpal Strike', and the starter one, 'Horizontal'.

"Okay, this is the first one!"

The plant that appeared in front of her was about two meters high, with a big mouth filled with teeth, no eyes and considerably long tentacles. Why do they need to have tentacles? With this kind of things, it is normal that other countries see us like helpless perverts. As it was going to attack, a surprised Rain was shot forward a few meters, her red eyes shining in surprise and her light brown hair waving as she thrusted through the plant's mouth, making it disappear a few seconds later.

"Whoa! This is amazing! Now I got how they leveled up that fast!"

The plant didn't have any flower, so the item did not drop. After a second, she heard some voices, so she hid behind a tree. She didn't really know why, but attention wasn't something she desired. Something told her that they were in that forest for the same reason.

"Yes, dude! That plant thing is around here!"

"We are so going to get that sword!"

Crap. Looks like I am not the only one behind it. I should have some time until they find it. Rain ran into the forest, slaying, piercing and slashing every monster she came across with. After almost 45 minutes, being it almost midnight and having killed more than a hundred nepenthes, she was tiredly thinking about giving up when she heard a loud war cry.

In the next area of the forest, the two players she had seen before were in the middle of a battle with a slightly bigger nepenthes. It had a different color pattern. A quick look at it revealed the flower on its head. Hmm, how unlucky. Guess I'll have to come again tomorrow.

"This is the first time it spawns in a week!"

What, a week?! I can't wait that long! She looked at how focused the warriors had managed to bring it down to less than a quarter HP. One of them had a spear, and his friend had an axe. Wait, why do they want a sword? Are they reall that stupid? If the wanted a sword, they could have chosen it as their initial weapon. She made a really evil plan.She activated her hiding skill and ran behind the monster. The players, focused on the monster, didn't seem to notice her. This might not be the nicest thing to do something tells me that playing nice won't make it.

Sorry.

She used the skill with highest damage she could afford, 'Vertical'. The downwards skill slash sliced through its head all the way down to its tentacle/feet, as the last chunk of its HP vanished. Even after a month, she couldn't get used to those polygons exploding. The players seemed confused, since neither of them had attacked, and when the polygons disappeared, there was nobody there.

Ten minutes later, at the end of the forest, the sword-user was sitting on a tree branch, five meters above the ground. Maybe that was not very nice of me. Rain DID think that she had done something wrong, but she didn't care at all. If they are clever enough, they won't risk their lives without a powerful weapon. After all, they were using a spear and am axe, for god's sake! I need it now, I will be playing on a hard place now.

She jumped from the tree and sheathed her 'Bronze Sword', just in time to start running. It was almost one in the morning, and the raid would start at noon. Not sleeping had the same exhausting effect that in the real world.

"Ugh, if I don't get there quickly, I won't get any sleep."

After a rather boring run, without monsters or even players, she arrived back at the house.

"I'm back, miss! I have brought the medicine for your daughter!"

A known face came up from the front door, showing the usual strange smile, and clapped in joy.

"Ah! Thank you so much! Now I can heal my daughter!"

The woman entered the house, and so did Rain. The NPC opened the door of a room in which a petite figure was lying down. She was sweating, and like tears, sweat disappeared when it left its owner's body. She had a painful expression, incredibly realistic for a NPC girl. The woman poured the 'Little Nepenthes Ovule' in the girl's mouth. The chest of the girl started to shine. After a glowing minute, the girl opened her eyes and shyly looked at her surroundings.

"W-where am I? Okaasan?"

The woman hugged the girl, and Rain felt like if she was not necessary, so she left. She sat on a chair of the kitchen, materialised an apple-like fruit she had found in the forest and bit it. A sweet, filling flavor exploded in her mouth. Bite after bite, she enjoyed the simplest,yet the most satisfying meal she had had in a month. Maybe it was the feeling of a fulfilled duty. Not even ten minutes had passed when the woman appeared in the kitchen.

"I have to thank you. Without your help, my daughter wouldn't have survived. She also wants to thank you. Akino! Come here!"

The girl, looking around ten, left the room carrying a heavy item, wrapped in a towel. She had short, blonde hair and now was wearing glasses. The combination of those with her eyes and wide smile made her look properly childish, but also really cute. She was smiling behind the effort of holding such a heavy package. She arrived at the table and hurriedly gave it to Rain.

"Thank you for saving me, onee-chan."

Rain patted the little girl's head. A little spear of pain pierced through her. Would having a little sister be like this? She had a long way if she wanted to discover.

"You can sleep here if you want."

"Sorry, but I have a inn room. I will have to decline."

Both the woman and the girl showed a little expression of sadness, slightly more realistic this time.

"Okay, then I won't hold you back."

What a strange pair. Of all the NPCs I have seen so far, these two look more human-like. When she opened the door, a tiny hand for a ten year old girl grasped her arm. Rain turned around and her eyes met the girl's.

"Come back sometime, onee-chan!"

Some weird feeling, considering that the girl was a NPC, popped up. She nodded and left. On her way back, she thought about the quest. If it hadn't been for the death factor, the game was quite fun. It could get boring somehow, but she liked the concept. She had killed exactly 147 nepenthes in the forest, leveled up, and once again, now level 7, and, once again, invested her point on Dexterity. At the moment, she had four points on Agility and three on Dexterity. Apart from that, she had picked hiding and smithing as secondary skill and non-battle skill Why did I pick smithing? Ah, I should have taken cooking! I can't live with the food of the inn forever!

She was thinking about the different jobs when she remembered about Argo. She opened the PM menu and wrote.

[I completed the quest. I have some info I think could be useful. For me, the approximate spawn rate for the nepenthes was about 0,7%. Consider this a payback for the info about the quest. Next time I'll charge you! Dosvedanya!"

She wasn't very confident on how the info broker would react to the joke. After all, she had only talked to her for half an hour. Before she even noticed, she was back in the inn. She entered and ignored the rest of the people, heading straight to the room. When she arrived, she let out a sigh of relief and exhaustion.

"Phew! Finally, sleep time! I can't wait!"

That, obviously, wasn't true. As soon as her gaze landed on the wrapped package the girl had gifted her, most of her sleep mood vanished. Even when it was almost two in the morning, she unwrapped it and discovered a sword sheath. It was not really decorated, not that she liked huge ornaments. Two days before, a girl brought five considerably decorated rapiers to the dungeon, broke them all, fainted, and was taken back to the town by a young boy.

Now, the real deal comes next. Rain unsheathed the one-handed weapon and both smiled and opened her mouth in amazement.

"Whoa, I guess this is the reason for the 'Art' in the game's name!"

The sword was rather simple. No decoration, no cool colors, no anything. However, there was something in the handle, in the spiked blade, in the calm grey sword, that irradiated pure elegance. The amazed girl stood up and assumed a low stance. The skill 'Horizontal' made the sword glow blue, and destroyed a glass in the table.

"Oops!"

The window to pay for repairements popped up. Forntunatly, a glass costed only 60 col. After getting rid of the in-game currency, a long yawn was let out. She hadn't realised how tired she was. Still having a little strength left, Rain was clever enough to unequip her battle gear. As far as she was concerned, there was no way of getting completely naked, so she lied down in the bed. The last thing she saw before falling asleep was the shape of her new sword.

 **11:28 December 4th. Horunka Village, Floor 1, Aincrad.**

"Shit, shit, shit!"

She had fallen asleep, and remained like that for longer than expected. The boss fight was in half an hour, and almost three kilometers away. How could I fall asleep that easily?! I won't make it in time!"

She hurriedly equipped her battle gear and rushed through the inn, then the town.

It was a great day. The sun was shining, cloudless sky, the girl were singing, great enough to make her, and probably the entire clear team, curse their luck for having chosen that day. At some moment, she saw a familiar girl with whiskers in her face.

"Ah, Rain-chan! He…"

"Sorry, I don't have time, Argo-chan! We'll speak later!"

She then continued to run. When being in the edge of the town, she wondered if she should stop to visit Akino and her mother. She soon declined her own idea. Coming two consecutive days would be kind of rude. Running for 10 minutes, killing the now annoying boars spawning everywhere, and a SPD potion later, she arrived at the dungeon. The round tower, around 100 meters in diameter, rose all the way up to the next floor. That meant that there could be up to 30 floors in the labyrinth. Rain had gone to the 16th.

"Well, here goes nothing!" she entered the imposing building with her new sword in her hand. The monsters in there were mainly some weird dog thingie. 'Ruin sentinel kobold'. How boring, my 'scary puppies' fits better! Fifteen Minutes of brutally slaughtering puppies, she found herself on a passage next to the front liners. There were very different players. Probably she now was the same level as them, level 8, but she wouldn't take part in it. That thing of 'everyday training' was a killer lie. When glancing through the group, she could see a really big black man, a blue-haired man, probably the leader, and lots of not-impressing-at-all people. After a brief talk, they entered the boss room. She looked inside.

In the middle of the room,there was a huge, really fat kobold. Next to him, three 'puppies' were swinging their maces around. The clearers divided into seven groups, three for each mob and four to keep 'Illfang', as it was named, entertained. They had clearly explained the strategy the day before. With such different players, who would think they would work together this nicely? As she thought this, she materialised the only throwing pick she had, dropped by a boar the first day she went to the fields.

The party started to attack. They weren't absolutely coordinated, but enough to hold the boss back. It didn't take them much to make the first HP bar vanish. Illfang roared and three more 'puppies' spawned. The clear team did the same again. A pair of two players, one of them a black-haired boy and the other having a hood, but obviously a girl, were dominating their task. When the boy landed a skill, the girl was there without delay. If this is going to be like this, they will get bored soon. Guess I'll wait for them. After ten minutes of boring watching, the.boss was brought to the last third of its HP bar. It jumped back and threw its axe at the clearers. He prepared to unsheath another weapon when the blue haired man from before jumped forward.

"I'll take care of this, stand back!"

"STOP, THAT ISN'T A TALWAR, IT'S A NODACHI!"

Indeed, the monster didn't take out the indian curved sword. The man, still running, showed a surprised expression. Rain's body reacted before her brain did. She threw her pick to the man's ankle, causing paralysis on it. The man dropped like a ragdoll as the big-ass katana-like weapon sliced the air over his head four times. He didn't get up. Both the hooded girl and the black-haired boy engaged. They worked as one, the boy parrying with his sword and the girl hitting it. Man, I will need to rush in to get XP now, curse this guy! In the exact moment Rain saw the two of them in post skill delay, she jumped in from behind without anyone noticing, due to both the amazement of Diavel's stupidity and for the sudden change in weapon. She didn't want to kill the boss, only hit it to get some XP, which she intended to do with the pick.What the girl didn't expect was the black haired boy also jumping. His strike, 'Vertical', landed first, leaving the boss with literally one bit of HP left. When her 'Horizontal' landed, the boss roared in pain for the last time before exploding in a immense and incredibly dense cloud of polygons. She panicked for a second. Fuck! Now everyone will look at me! My intention of remaining hidden is gone! While still in the cloud, a window popped up. 'Midnight coat', last hit bonus. She materialised it as soon as she could and threw it towards the confused boy, who still hadn't noticed her, becoming the coat a environmental object and enabling him to pick it. She then rushed towards the now open door leading to the second floor.

She, however, stopped behind the door to hear at what they said. The boy had put the coat in his inventory, and some cactus-like man was shouting at him.

"Why didn't you shout that advice of yours earlier?! You scared us to death! How did you know what weapon it was?" his expression twisted into anger. "Could it be that you are a beta tester?!"

And again. What has this guy against beta testers? Rain didn't have enough time to think any longer.

"Beta tester?!" say the black haired boy while evilly laughing. "Don't put me in the same group as those newbies!"

More than enough. Rain took a robe from her inventory and put it on. She walked all the way up the stairs for five minutes. Finally, she got to a strange column with some kind of runes. When she touched it, a stream of countless particles exploded in the device.

"A teleport gate! Nice! I will rent an inn room and come back in a week or so to vi…"

"So it was you."

That sentence surprised the sword-user, who fortunately didn't turn around. Even with the robe, it would be hard not to be seen. The black-haired boy was now wearing the coat she had thrown at him, and his blade, identical to hers, hanging from the left side of his waist.

"W-What do you mean?"

"It was you who landed the last hit, and judging by the orange cursor over your head, it was also you who saved Diavel."

She nervously looked up. On top of her head, an orange cursor was calmly floating. She panicked. A lot of rumors about the effects of that cursor had been spread, and none of them was good.

"Ah, don't worry, you didnt even hit for a twentieth of his HP. If my maths aren't to rusty, it should disappear just now."

In that moment, the orange cursor was replaced by a green one. Rain sighed with relief. She would be able to sleep today in a town.

"Listen. I don't blame you for what happened back there. In fact, if you hadn't saved Diavel, it could have gone far worse. I just want to know why. Why give this coat to me and run away?"

Rain doubted she should run through the gate. After all, how could speaking with that black-haired boy hurt her?

"Black doesn't really suit me. As for why I ran away, well. I had a bad time with too many guys being after me. IRL things. I just want to remain unnoticed."

The boy frowned slightly. After being condemned to a in-game life of loneliness, he didn't really understand why someone would desire the same.

"My name is Kirito. Nice to meet you."

Rain smiled and turned around to look at the young beater's eyes, those black eyes staring at her with curiosity, without letting him see her own.

"It's a pleasure, but I will keep my name as a secret for some time. I would really appreciate if you didn't tell them about me. Will you do me a favour?"

Kirito looked like if he was about to say something, but he smiled slightly, which made Rain also wonder why someone would do what he had done. It was pretty obvious that he had understood the situation in which all the beta testers were in that moment. He had decided to carry all that weight within his own shoulders. I can't tell if he is really noble or absolutely stupid. Who wants eight thousand enemies in this world?

"You ended that dog. It is you who has to go first to the next door."

"I will. Looks like that 'Asuna' girl that was in your party is chasing you down."

Both confusion and fear because that girl was chasing him showed up in Kirito's face.

"How did you know her name?"

"Looking at how you shouted it out loud, I think that even some bosses from the following floors know her name. Wait for her. In this game, the male-female rate is so low that you most likely won't have any other opportunity, especially with a girl that stunning."

The so-called beater smiled widely as he blushed very slightly and chocked a bit.

"I-I will wait for her. But if you say I should get some company, what about you?"

Rain smiled as she stepped into the stream of light and started to vanish.

"Don't worry, I will figure it out on my own."

The last thing she saw was a girl with long, chestnut hair calmly walking towards Kirito with her rapier sheathed and looking at him in a killer mood.


	2. Chapter 2: Martial arts

13:12 December 6th. Marome village. Floor 2, Aincrad.

"Clang!"

At the third consecutive try, the enhancement failed. Not that Rain didn't expect it, using the initial hammer and not having leveled it a lot, the two successes in a row were more than she could expect.

In the little village she had rested for the night in a hurried try to keep the distance from the players, specifically from that one, Kirito. He knew it had been her who killed the boss, and even if it had been an accident, that made her uncomfortable. She had the necessary materials to enhance her 'Anneal Blade2' once again, but she wasn't feeling like it. With a resigned sigh, she put her hammer into the inventory.

In the little town she was, there were no big shops. A small weapon shop, where she was right now using an anvil, a few houses and a cafeteria, where it was said that the best milk and coffee of all Aincrad was served. The half warrior half smith girl headed towards it, clearing her boiling head from all silly thoughts. When she entered, she was surprised. Whoa! Nice ornaments! Maybe not as good as the maid cafe, but nice enough. She sat down in a chair next to the window, only after ordering coffee.

Meanwhile, Argo 'The Rat' was also heading to the café when she saw Rain. Isn't that Re-chan? Guess I'll say hello. After a calm and silent approach, she touched her shoulder, something truly unexpected that made her jump.

"Waiter! A glass of milk!"

"W-What the…?!"

"Hi, Re-chan."

"Argo-chan?! Privyet!"

"Shhh, not that loud, I am not supposed to be here."

The hooded girl, as mysterious as ever, let out a wide smile. She had a dagger hanging from the left side of her waist, and was clad in a brown outfit, the same colour as her whiskers.

"Yeah, Re-chan! It was a little bit hard to find ya, but with some contacts and a day's time, I found ya."

Something obvious came through the sword-user's mind. There was only one person that had come to the floor fast enough to see where she was heading.

"Did that guy, Kirito, tell you?"

Argo switched her smile with a bitter expression.

"Nope, Kii-bou didn't say a thing. No matter what others say, he is annoyingly loyal. If he wanted, he could have just given the names of the beta testers. No, he wouldn't do that."

Clearly, she knows him from before. Rain sighed lightly, thinking which connections Argo could with the black-clad boy.

"Are you two, well, you know...?

Argo denied while rising and eyebrow. "No, by no means. He has the social skills of a rock, but he sells and buys info. Officially, and when people is around, we are work acquaintances. Outside that, ya could say we are friends."

The sword user's curiosity grew. Her mother always said curiosity was not a pleasant feeling if the answers are not at the reach of a hand, but there was no helping it.

"How come you are not friends in public?"

The bitter expression in the info broker's face was replaced by a sad one.

"I am an info broker and he is a beater. We are both hated to points ya couldn't imagine, he because of what he 'did'" Rain noticed the ironic and sad manner in which she pronounced those words. "and me due to my 'questionable' policy and my harsh attitude towards my clients. Ya saw what happened the day we met. We two together could become public enemy number one. Given normal conditions, neither of us would care the tiniest bit, but this world doesn't forgive"

That is kind of sad. I don't know if it is harder to be alone or to have a friend and not be able to be with him. A confused Rain looked at the NPC waiter who carries two cups, one of milk and one of hot coffee. The confusion only grew in the girl as Argo held her cup with a hand and poured a huge load of virtual sugar on her milk.

"Is somethin' the matter, Re-chan?"

"Well, to be honest, I expected you to get something, you know, 'stronger' than milk."

Argi grinned in a funny way. The mark of the milk remained on her face for a second after disappearing. She laughed before giving an answer.

"Kii-bou said the same. To be honest, I am waiting until floor 8. You can get alcohol there."

Rain's eyes widened slightly. Her mouth open too, she tried to ask something, but before she could, Argo continued

"Ah yeah. Even young teens think alcohol is bad even here, but ya can't get drunk here, no matter how much you drink. Don't worry, my first time was in the beta, not IRL. I just like the flavour. To be honest, I was expecting ya to be a liiiittle bit more surprised."

"Not really, I am half russian."

Both girls looked at each other for two, maybe three seconds, and then the laughter exploded. Rain had smartly put her coffee in the table, but the info broker had not been that fast. Her milk spilled all over the floor, drawing the attention of the few customers that weren't already looking at them. After two minutes of uncontrolled laughter, they both calmed out. The first to notice the spilled milk was Argo.

"Fuck! My milk is all over the floor! You are the one to blame, Re-chan!"

Rain truly wanted to continue the joke. She hadn't laughed that much for years, not even with her friends in the maid café, but curiosity attacked once again.

"How come you are here, Argo-chan?"

"Don't ya know? If ya want to know somethin' ya have to give yer reasons first."

"Ah, how funny." said Rain while she made a sarcastic expression. "I don't have a real reason, just to run away from the crowd. So, how about you?"

Argo grinned once again with a evil smile.

"Well, that info ain't free."

"You are hard to convince, aren't you?"

"That will be 800 col. I am already lowering it, so once again, consider yourself lucky."

For the sword-user, 800 col wasn't a huge deal. Selling all the items from the medicine quest, and the reward for killing Illfang, she had about 20000 col, but the face of the expert in bargain she had in front of her did not accept any price lower than that. Wait, I can't do that, she will accept it!

"Argo-chan, what is the cost of an enhancement for your dagger?"

The info broker looked at her as if she didn't understand.

"About 550 col, why do ya wanna know?"

"I'm thinking about something, what about if I upgrade your dagger twice and we leave it like that?"

The hooded girl frowned and scratched her head for a moment. That is a lil' offer I won't let slip.

"Yep, that will make it. Cheaper than a smith."

Ten minutes later, after the first upgrade succeeded, the smith-wannabe hammered the dagger for the eight time. Its shine faded and the 'Upgrade Success' came up with the confetti-like particles.

"Oh, nice, Argo-chan! I managed to somehow get a paralysis side effect on it."

"Whoa, do you have any weaknesses, Re-chan?"

They were heading back to the cafe. They arrived, once again ordered a glass of milk and one of coffe. The 'I won' smile in Argo's face reminded Rain of their deal.

"Don't try to trick me, Argo-chan!"

Argo sighed and smiled. "Well, good enough. If you mean this floor, I really like the milk here. As for this specific cafe, well, the reason is walking right behind ya."

Rain, confused as usual, faced the window. She felt a tension she had never felt before. Now entering the shop, there were two persons, a beautiful chestnut-haired girl with a rapier, and a black clad sword user, with the very same blade she had.

Kirito the beater and his companion, Asuna, said to have a really nice fighting potential.

Of all the people, why did it have to be them? A nervous Rain waited for the time when the black clad boy recognised her, but he spoke directly to Argo.

"Now THAT is a surprise. Argo making friends? Someone get me a lottery ticket, please."

Argo ignored him. In fact, she didn't even look at him. Instead, she looked at Asuna, and then at Kirito, demanding and explanation.

"Kii-bou, how come yer walkin' around with such a cutie?"

That put a bored expression in Kirito's face and a violent blush in Asuna's. Meanwhile, Argo was laughing and Rain was not really enjoying, given her nervousness. So this two really knew each other.

"As funny as always. Argo, this is Asuna, an absolutely burden. Even when I told her to go away for her own sake, she sticked to me."

The chestnut-haired girl, now smiling to hide her blush, introduced herself.

"My name is Asuna! It's a pleasure!"

"The pleasure is mine!" the info broker replied with a friendly grin. "My name is Argo, the best info broker around!"

"Seriously, you have to stop calling yourself that." Kirito continued to make his bored expression. "Who is with you, anyway?"

If Rain had been IRL, she would have been sweating. He will know. Im screwed.

"P-Privyet. My name is Rain. Nice to meet you."

A sudden thought came through Kirito's mind, and it could be seen in his eyes, too fast for any of the girls l, except from Argo, to see.

"Kirito here, and this is Asuna. Nice to meet you too."

Both sword users stared at each other for seconds that didn't seem to end. Finally, someone broke the gaze.

"Kirito, we didn't come here to make friends. We have a quest to finish."

Kirito faced the chestnut-haired girl, Asuna as if she didn't understand or if she had said something stupid.

"Well, she didn't really say she wanted to befriend me, and, to be fair, I didn't want you to follow me in the first place."

Asuna pouted, and both the other girls, along with Kirito laughed at her.

"H-Hey! Don't be mean!"

"Yeah, sure. Let's go!"

"Kii-bou, Aa-chan, aren't ya forgettin' someone?"

The finger of the info broker was pointing at a nervous Rain. Both Asuna and Kirito, now with a cup of tea, faced her. The rapier user asked for forgiveness.

"Ah, sorry. Kirito-kun, can I tell her?"

"Hmm. As long as she does not spread info, I have no problem."

Asuna smiled and started her explanation.

"So, in the far south of the floor, there is a hut. Inside, an old man offers a quest. Supposedly, you have to break an unbreakable rock with your bare hands. We are heading there. The quest reward is an extra skill, martial arts."

Martial arts, hmm. "Guess if you don't mind me, I'm coming."

A smile appeared in the faces of the three players in front of her. "But right after it, I'm going solo."

Those words broke the cheerful mood that had been there for a while now. The first one to talk was, surprisingly enough, Asuna.

"W-Well, if it is because of my words, don't mind them!"

A frowning Kirito stopped her from continuing. "Let her, Asuna. We can't change her opinion. In fact, I think it will be better for her. If you stick with me, regardless what I say, it will be just you and I. Argo has business to mind."

The rapier user sighed. Really? Me alone with this dude? After a brief pause to sink in her thoughts, she hurried everybody. "C'mon, we have quest to finish"

"Ya said it, A-chan! Let's go, Kii-bou, Re-chan!"

14:32 December 6th. Southern sector. Floor 2. Aincrad.

About an hour after leaving the town, and having a tough time to get through the forest(seriously, a forest in the middle of a desert?), the group of adventurers arrived at the base of a mountain. Those flat topped mountains reminded them of those in the states. However, if the mountains were surprising, the cow-like mobs were overwhelmingly overwhelming.

"Holy whiskers! Huge!"

"I bet they are at least five meters high! 'Trembling cow'."

"I betcha they aren't as high as the game designers."

The most amazed one was, without a doubt, Rain.

"So this is a cow. They are humongous!"

"Sorry, but IRL they are smaller."

Rain looked at Argo. "Do you think I am stupid? Wait, it's better not to answer that."

"Whatever you two do, don't attack them. That goes for you too, Asuna."

After almost a hour, the arrived at the base of a little mountain. A stairway had been carved in the stone, and at the very end, there was a wooden hut. They started to walk. Only when they were halfway there, they all said exactly the same at the exact same time.

"Why is this place so goddamn hot?!"

Indeed, the temperature was somewhere around 40 degrees. The melting heat in that floor was for sure really disturbing, at least compared to the weather in floor 1.

"If we think about it, deserts are supposed to be like that, A-chan. If ya want a premiere of the next floor, it will be a forest all over the floor, provided it stays the same as the beta."

Asuna calmly looked at her surroundings. A forest, huh? That might not be a bad idea, this forest down here made the heat bearable. Seeing that they were about to top the mountain, she focused all her will on the final steps.

"Ahh! Finally!"

On the top of that place, there were a few rocks and group of cows. The group approached the edge of the mountain. Apart from the 80 meter fall and the forest that went almost two kilometers in every direction, there was nothing there. Then, they saw the stairs.

"You guys, why does those stairs have that shape?"

With 'shape', she meant the snake-like form the stairway had, instead of a straight one just heading to the top. That, along with the blazing heat did nothing good to everyone's nerves, especially to Kirito's.

"I swear, if someday I get to meet Kayaba, I am going to kill him really bad."

"I feel ya, Kii-bou."

Asuna was panting to hard to even try and talk, even if there was no real exhaustion in that world, and Rain was paying attention to some other matters.

"Hmm, guys, I think I found it. There."

Almost twenty meters away, a tiny hut could be seen. In the front yard, there was a chair, with a man calmly sleeping on it. The old person was sleeping, at least until Asyna ran towards the NPC and grabbed him.

"Wake up, you sleeping beauty! We didn't come all the way up here to see ya sleeping!"

Even if SAO,s world was programmed to be realistic, there were some things that hadn't been properly simulated, those being, for example, liquid environments and hair other than the facial one. However, the most noticeable one was the lack of fast and complex responses when talking to NPCs. That made it unpleasant to talk to them for long periods of time.

"Don't lose it, Asuna, I told you how those NPCs work, you have to use the right sentence. Are you ready?" then, the black-haired gamer turned around to face Rain with a smile that she hadn't seen before. Like that, he is someone I would like to be friends with. "Do you want to get the skill with us? You don't really need to fight, but we might encounter some monsters in our way there."

Rain doubted for a minute, thinking of the many inconveniences of sticking to them. She didn't want to disappoint them by leaving after that quest was over. They say it would be okay. Why do I think of us as friends, specially with him?

"I'll go with you, but I will leave after that, just as I said."

"I don't really have a problem with that. How about you, Asuna?"

The chestnut-haired rapier user dropped the man back to his chair to face both sword users.

"I don't really like the idea of her going alone, but if it is what she wants, we can't do anything against it."

"Well said, Aa-chan. Now, as the only one who actually took this quest in the beta, let me say the magic words."

It was not necessary to mention that talking to anybody not reliable of the status of those two about beta testers was forbidden. In Kirito's case, 99% of the population in that flying castle would know by that moment. As for Argo, it was necessary to do so for her sake.

"Being both a info broker and a beta tester wouldn't be well seen, dont'cha think?"

"Excuse me, Sensei, we came here to seek our way with martial arts."

As if his life had returned to him, the old man jumped from the chair and landed in front of the group. A closer look now he was standing revealed his long hair and his blue eyes. He was wearing a kimono, the traditional japanese home wear. Despite all this, the most important and surprising feature was, without a doubt, his whiskers, which seemed to catch both Rain and Asuna off guard.

"Is this man part of your family somehow, Argo-chan?"

"There is actually a story behind that, you know, Re-chan."

A laughing Kirito stopped Argo from talking.

"Ah, you mean THAT story! How could I not remember it?"

The killer expression in the info broker's face didn't seem to stop his laughter. "One more word and ya will find yerself not bein' able to enter a town."

The laughter died in Kirito's throat. That kind of threat, coming from someone like Argo, didn't mind anything good.

"My disciples, you seem to have forgotten me."

The old man sat down in his chair once again, grabbing one of his claws from the floor. Calmly reaching for the tea cup, only to discover it was empty, the NPC continued.

"So you all desire to acquire some skills in martial arts. I have one, and only one, way to test your strength. Follow me to the plain of the trial."

The little, but determined group of players followed their sensei to the cave. After three minutes or so walking, Argo noticed that Rain was walking way behind them. She slowed down a bit, enough to meet her.

"Re-chan, I told ya that ya could trust those two."

"What do you mean?"

She tried the 'Naive girl' attitude, but the heavy frown in the whiskered girl told her that she would get anywhere with it. After a big sigh, the sword user answered.

"Okay, it's just, I don't want to get too attached to anyone. I will just stick to solo and hope for the best."

"That is silly." the info broker stared at the sword user's eyes with no ill will, just to let her know what she thought. "I would even call it stupid. See that guy over there? He is a solo player. He made Aa-chan promise she would join the first nice guild that asked her to do so. After that, he will play alone. I won't ask ya to get friends if ya don't want to, but we have to look after each other's back. I understand that if I or Kirito make this, is for yer sake, but I won't understand why someone like ya would want to."

The truth in Argo's words hit Rain. Why do I want to do this? .

"You know what? I will start a guild. Anyone will be able to join, whoever they are, if they have a good will. That includes you, Argo-chan."

The frown in the dagger user intensified a bit, only to become a big smile. "We will someday talk about that, I have a thing for stubborn people."

"Hey, you two, we are here!"

With their little talk, they did not realise they had arrived at the place. It was a little hole in a wall.

"If I remember correctly, monsters in the area are level 8, but the plain is absolutely empty. Ya okay with that?"

After everybody agreed to share their levels, being both clearers level 11, Argo level 9 and Rain level 10, the last two due to a crazy secret leveling night with XP potions, they followed the old man. There wasn't too much to see, just a bunch of rocks displayed in a way that reminded of those stone circles in great britain,and, in the middle of it, a rock the size of a cow, a real one.

"Now, dear apprentices, I will now grant you to mark."

"What?"

"Don't worry, Rain. No harm."

The martial art master took a little jar out of his bag. When the man dipped his index finger in it, all the players realised that it was nothing but normal brown paint. He proceeded to put some on Argo's face, but suddenly stopped.

"Oh, I see you already have the mark of the trial."

"What do you mean, sensei?"

"My trademark whiskers, Aa-chan."

"In that case, I will mark your friends."

The three said people waited calmly for the paint, not stopping them from frowning when the cold liquid touched their cheeks.

Then, they looked at Argo, wordlessly asking how they were looking. Obviously, she laughed at them. "Ridiculous." she said.

"Now show me your strength by wrecking this rock."

Both Asuna and Rain widened their eyes. They looked at the rock, then at their companions, and then again at the rock. The first to react was Rain

"Now THAT will be hard. Have people even completed this quest?"

"In this game, not yet. As for the beta, I know a little someone that.. Gha!"

The foot that hit the back of his neck and sent him to eat the dust was, without mistake, Argo's. Someone would expect an extremely angry expression, but the girl calmly said.

"I warned ya."

"A-Argo-chan, you won't have any problems, will you?"

"Hitting a easygoing jerk is easier than splitting a huge rock into two, Re-chan. I'm not sure any of us can…."

"I will not surrender!"

Faithfully to her words, and to that attitude that had lead her to be caged into a dungeon until she fainted, Asuna swung down her hand at the rock. The new, yet obvious status Asuna got herself, 'Broken Bone', refused to make her able to break the rock.

"Crap!"

"Asuna-chan, are you okay?!"

"She will be okay, Rain. That pretty much sums up all our results if we don't train. It's getting dark anyways, we should head back to the inn. Are you two staying in this floor?"

"I am staying in an inn in the first floor."

"Same for me, Kii-bou. What 'bout Aa-chan?"

"She is staying with me."

The silence that followed was truly thick, any of the player could have cut through it.

"Kii-bou."

"Hmm?"

"You are a playah."

That made it so both Kirito and Asuna blushed crimson.

"W-Wha...?!"

"Hahahaha, that is the Kii-bou I know! Ya two should see yer faces right now."

Somehow, even with all her shyness, Rain too was laughing.

"True, true! Worth a picture!"

It was hard to tell which one was more embarrassed. Kirito tried to fix and rephrase it.

"W-Wait! I mean in the same inn! We have known each other for two days!"

"So, ya mean that if ya and Aa-chan have know for longer, maybe as long as we two have, you two would sleep together?"

"ARGO!"

Their blush, of possible, intensified. Asuna was hiding her face between her hands, and Kirito ran after the laughing info broker.

"Argo-chan, you shouldn't be that dirty-minded."

"Ah, don't tell me what to do! For now, let's head back to town!"

20:36. December 6th. Urbus. Floor 2, Aincrad.

"See you tomorrow, Argo-chan, Rain-chan!"

"Dosvedanya!"

"Seeya, Aa-chan, and remember, Kii-bou, no ecchi"

The last thing the two girls saw was the red faces of Kirito and Asuna. After a second, the info broker approached the teleport gate.

"Just for future references, how does those work?"

"True, yer first trip was with that gate. Simple as it can be. This one has multiple destinations, unlike the one you used before. Ya step in there and say yer destination. Sayin' a non-existin' place won't work, obviously. Come here, the first trips always make people dizzy!"

True, the last time I would have thrown up if it had been posible. Rain gave the small buildings in Urbus, the main city in floor 2, a quick gaze and stepped into the little platform.

"Teleport, Horunka!"

With those words, Rain firmly closing her eyes, they disappeared from the second floor. It was kind of a disappointment for the sword user. She expected something far more exciting. When she opened her eyes, she saw the place she had left the day that morning, after coming back for her first exploration of the second floor the day before and staying there for the night. Both girls yawned, that showing the effects of the long day.

"Well, that's it for me, Re-chan. See ya."

Rain was about to say the same, but some weird idea came through her mind.

"Its almost nine. Early. Do you have some time? There is…. Someone I want you to meet."

Argo replaced her tires expression with a curious one.

"What do ya mean with someone?"

"An NPC. Something bugs me. Do you have a minute?"

Argo looked at an imaginary watch, something that surely came from far behind in time. She then sighed and agreed.

"Follow me then."

The night life in that town was more like the one in a small town than a city. That is, children playing in the streets, little bars with few people in them, a couple of homeless NPCs singing in the streets, that kind of stuff. However, when they arrived at the little house at the end of the town, none of those could be seen.

"Ah, if with bugs you is that you can't any longer take the quest to get that blade, I knew it."

"You can't?"

"A player told me that the quest NPC no longer received the players, and when it did, no coughing was audible."

"When did that happen?"

"Yesterday, at morning, it was no longer possible."

Wait, that means the last to take the quest….

"Anyways, let me try."

Rain knocked the door. The warm light inside was the exact same as the first time she had been there. After a brief pause without response, a petite figure appeared behind the door. The confused expression in Argo's face grew bigger, and the one in the little girl's was replaced with a cute smile.

"Oneechan! You came!" Then she ran into the house, dropping her glasses in her way there. "Okaa-san, Rain-oneechan came!"

"You for sure have an explanation, don't ya? Would ya mind explainin' it to me?"

Rain let out a loud sigh. I knew that was going to happen, sooner or later. She entered the house, and so did the info broker. The girls met the little girl, wearing her little dress, with those glasses and, behind them, those blue eyes that made her look even cuter. Behind her, there was the woman Rain had met two days ago, supposedly the mother of the NPC girl. The smell of stew invaded the room, as the stomach of both girls roared wildly.

"Privyet."

"Oh, Rain-san! You are welcome. Today, fortunately, I have food to offer. Who is your friend?"

Rain turned around to ask Argo, and was greatly surprised. Instead of her usual smile, Argo had the frowning face of someone deeply lost in his thoughts.

"My name is Argo."

The lack of words worried the sword user. Where is the easy-going and talkative Argo?

"M'am, I don't really know what to say about eating."

"Please stay! Okaasan won a lot of cooking contests when she was younger, her stew is the best."

As if Argo had remembered how to be herself, she smiled and patted the little girl's head.

"If ya don't mind, I won't reject a stew."

After that, the three girls sat down at the tiny table, which, by means of destiny, had four chairs. The mother, who seemingly was called Marie,(a strange name, taking into account the game was designed by a japanese man) brought a big pot. She put the spoon inside and served all the present people, being her the last one.

"Itadakimasu!"

The four females took their spoons and started having dinner.

"Whoa, Akino-chan! Ya sure weren't lyin'! This stew is the best I have ever had!"

"I told you, Argo-oneechan!"

Argo looked at the little girl with a smile, while she took the last spoon of stew of the plate.

"Do ya call everybody oneechan?"

"Wait, Argo-chan. If you we are her onee chans, that means she is our beloved imouto!"

The spoon stopped in its way to the info broker's mouth, and stayed there for a couple of seconds. Then, the girl ate it. A bitter smile appeared on her face.

"Y-Yes, Re-chan. Beloved imouto."

"Rain-oneechan, I have something for you."

The little girl ran towards her room. All the warmth in the room left with her. The woman NPC was just too cold, just as all the NPC. Soon after, she came back with a piece of paper, dropping a lot of colour pencils in her way. She then showed it to the sword user.

"For you!"

The drawing was pretty stickman-like amd simple, but somehow beautiful. There, a group of females could be seen. Apart from the brown haired one, obviously Rain herself, there were other two woman, or maybe girls, it was hard to tell. As strange as that was, the sword user decided not to ask.

"T-Thank you, its beautiful."

"Glad you like it!"

Suddenly, Marie stood up and looked at Akino.

"Now, it's time to sleep, Akino."

The petite girl was disappointed at first, but soon after got her smile back up.

"Will you stay for the night, oneechan?"

"I have an inn room, so…"

"No ya don't, ya forgot to pay for today's room this morning. Yer pretty much homeless."

Rain scratched the back of her head. Thinking back at it, she had rushed to the second floor as fast as she was able to.

"Crap, I knew I had forgotten something. Well, if you two don't mind it, I will stay here"

The girl smiled and walked towards her room, this time followed by his mother. As soon as she disappeared, a different, yet familiar voice sounded.

"So, lemme guess. What bugged ya was nothing more than the fact that ya found a NPC that could show complex response, and ya wanted me to know, not to mention that yer gonna ask me not to tell anybody, and what's more, ya want me to help ya find out what happens with her."

The suddenly overwhelmed girl tried to speak, but the words would come out. The fast and accurate deduction skills the info broker had surprised her greatly. When she was again able to speak, all she could come up with was a question.

"How did you know?"

The info broker on the contrary to her usual mood, seemed both angry and inside her thoughts, with a little bit of background confusion.

"Learnin" to read a person like I read a book was something necessary for my job here. I can read every single one of them, even if they don't want to."

"That's…"

"Impressive? No. Just necessary."

"Argo-chan, are you okay?"

For a moment, Argo didn't answer. She looked into her empty plate, playing with the spoon. Soon after, she looked at Rain and smiled.

"Don't worry. Its nothin', really. Now, we better go to sleep. Tomorrow we are going to level up a lot."

Level up? I thought we were going to go and beat that quest.

"Ah, no, Re-chan. We need more strength before we can ever try. I guarantee it. So tomorrow we will be, with the help of some others, be clearing the field boss. That should give us a boost."

Even if Rain was interested in knowing more, she was just too tired. Bah, more than enough time tomorrow. I'll go to sleep.

"Well then, Argo-chan, see you tomorrow for that field boss. Dosvedanya!"

"C'mon, just Argo is ok. See ya, Re-chan."

With that, Rain was alone again. She went to the sink and filled a glass with water. The strange feeling when it touched your skin in the game didn't stop Rain from drinking it. So, hard day tomorrow, huh? Anyways, we need that skill, and sticking to them until we finish it will be good. The sound of someone entering the kitchen stopped her train of thought.

"The girl is asleep. Don't make any noise, follow me."

Rain did not know the NPCs had a need to sleep. She thought they just stayed there, just like a computer in standby. That world did not cease to surprise her.

"Here. There is a bed inside and a little shelf. Feel free to use it. Sweet dreams."

"Thank you."

Sometimes, she forgot that she, like Argo, Kirito and probably Asuna, were just 14. To the eyes of most people out there, they were just kids that had the bad luck of falling into that world. Sometimes, Rain thought they were right. Thinking of how her mother would be feeling now, and without her wage broke her heart apart. However, even if she had her mother there, she didn't dislike SAO that much. Just as Kirito had said, in that world, a sword could take you wherever you wanted. With that in mind, she pulled the sheets of her bad and took her equipment before entering. She didn't like to throw it into, but to put it near the bed. Under normal conditions, their durability would drop, but inside a room, that being safer that a safe zone, it didn't. She then entered the bed and tried to fall asleep. Seeing that she didn't, she grabbed the drawing. Despite the simple traces, it was a truly beautiful. She hadn't looked at it before, but behind the four females, one being Rain and the other Akino, there was a house in the woods. The blue, cloudless sky was shining in the background, and a rainbow could be seen. In the middle of it, a message could be seen.

"Thank you, oneechan."

The smile in her face slowly faded as she realised something.

Rainbow.

Oneechan.

The last think Rain felt that the was the unpleasant, even more than in the real world, feeling of a tear flowing down her face.


	3. Chapter 3: Separation

**Once again, I bring you this story of mine. I just wanted to tell you what to expect. I have this planned(without much detail) until Fairy Dance. Just so you know, I just have to find my will to write. As usual, any review, either positive or negative, will be appreciated.**

 **12:15. December 8th. Horunka village. Floor 1. Aincrad**.

The clear, cloudless sky, the blazing heat, the singing birds. That would have been a perfect day for a beach trip, if only they had at least one beach in the two unlocked floors. The fact that her absence had denied her friends to take over the field boss the day before didn't help the info broker to make up her mind. They agreed to party with that bastard, Kibaou. Who would have guessed? Argo headed to the point where her and the sword user known as Rain had agreed to meet

"Hello, Argo-chan."

That was a moment the info broker wasn't really excited about. Even if her 'friends' weren't the kind of people that would blame her for disappearing, she knew how rancorous people could get in that game.

"Hi, Re-chan."

"The next time you go away to gather info about something I asked you about, make sure to tell us."

Wow, straight to the matter. The eyes of the info broker widened, something that didn't happen that much. She could count with the fingers of one hand how many times she had been surprised in her life, and this one was one of them.

"How did ya know?"

"I'll tell you later. The meeting in the second floor is about to start."

"Hey you, info broker!"

Both girls turned around with mixed confusion and boredom. What they saw made Rain's confusion grow bigger and Argo make a disgusted grimace. The two men that had tried to attack her the day the two girls met had come back, and with a third man with them. Their overjoyed expressions and smiles killed the chilled atmosphere.

"We see you still have that 'savior' of yours around. Doesn't matter, we came to buy info, not to fight."

The disgusted face of the info broker did not change a bit, however, Rain gripped her sword with her right hand, next to her newly found throwing picks, the same that she had used in the boss fight and looked at her friend. Seemingly, she had changed her dagger in the left part of her waist with claws, and throwing picks in the right side.

"I'm guessin' what yer gonna ask me, but go on."

"The same as the….."

"Then the answer is the same. Don't waste my time."

The info broker turned around and walked alongside Rain towards the teleport gate, but a hand grabbed her arm.

"Hey there, bitch, we are not….!"

In the time it took the man to finish his sentence, Argo equipped her right claw and swung it at the man. Two seconds later, the man had two less fingers. He screamed and staggered, only to fall on her lower back. He tried to grab the fingers, but they both disappeared into polygons. Both their attackers and Rain panicked.

"B-Bitch! What did you do?!"

"Oh, didn't ya know? If ya cut in the right place with the right amount of strength, you can slice limbs apart. Don't worry, they will appear back in a few minutes, maybe half an hour. Now, get of my fuckin' way."

The three men looked at the amputated fingers, then at Argo. They immediately ran away, crashing into people. Argo, not caring the slightest, calmly grabbed Rain's hand and walked towards the gate.

 **12:20. December 8th. Urbus' teleport gate. Floor 2 Aincrad.**

The melting heat, feeling almost liquid, make Kirito thank he was not IRL. When the days were hot, his black hair made him suffer. There, inside the game, he had different ways of suffering.

"Hooooooot!"

In any other circumstances, the presence of a beautiful girl next to him would have made him extremely nervous. He had to admit it, the girl was beautiful. Really beautiful. The whiskers in her face were quite a plus. Fuck. Too much anime. When I go back, I'll make sure to give up on gaming and get a girlfriend. Anyways, right now, she was only making his job as a beater harder.

"I told you, complaining won't change a single thing. I know this heat is horrible, but please, with that stupid I will be having enough."

"You mean Kibaou, don't you, Kirito-kun?"

Exactly. The black-haired boy sighed heavily. Those two, the man that had called him a beater, and the one who had joined him. When he thought about them, hate didn't appear. The only feeling he could come up with was indifference, the same

with most of the remaining 8000 players.

"Yes. They make it difficult to remain unnoticed."

"To be honest, I think that guy, the one who admires Diavel, would have been a problem if Diavel had died."

Kirito frowned slightly. He struggled for a bit, but managed to remember.

"Ah, you mean Lind?"

"Yes. Anyways, weren't Argo-chan and Rain-chan coming?" the hurried manner in which the rapier user let out those words denoted her impatience. " We agreed to meet those pigs here at half past twelve."

"Speaking of the devil."

From the blue stream of particles of the teleporter, a whiskered girl with a hood on and a brown-haired sword user appeared. The fact that Argo did not have her usual grin when meeting them, and that Rain didn't have the shy expression she had had the day before, replaced with a concerned one, came as a surprise to both waiting players.

"Hi, Kii-bou, Aa-chan."

The first thing Asuna did wasn't greeting back, but literally jumping towards Argo, successfully making her trip.

A little, lone tear dropped from the now whiskered face of the rapier user to the info broker's one.

"Don't you ever do that again! You got me worried!"

Argo didn't know how to react to those things. She said Kirito had the social skills of a rock, but she was quite the same. The last time anyone had hugged her was almost five years ago, and it was him.

"Aa-chan, sorry. I don't know what I was thinkin'."

"Then don't do those things!"

"She is right, Argo. That was irresponsible of you."

The info broker looked at the ground, which wasn't difficult having Asuna in top of her. She patted the girl's back, indirectly asking her to move, and, when it happened, she stood up.

"Excuse me, I have some guilt here too."

The three players faced the fourth. Rain was shyly looking at the three, and suddenly looked down.

"Argo-chan went away to gather info at my request. It is my fault."

"Stop it, Rain-chan. We aren't looking for someone to blame." Asuna calmly replied as she stood up too.

"Plus, we should be worryin' about what what we are gonna do with them."

"Yes, they are here."

The group of four players looked once again at the teleport gate, just in time to see two groups of three men appear. The first to step out was a rather short man, with cactus-like hair. He was leading a group of other five people. Behind him, two blue-haired men, both with silver armors, looked around. The first was the man who almost died three days before against Illfang, and the other one was his 'companion', if he could be called so. Basically, a fanboy.

"Well, here goes nothing."

"You dirty beater, how you dare to come here?! You want to steal the last attack drop again!"

That was fast. Even if Kirito had, indeed, got the 'Midnight coat', it had been Rain who actually got it. For her, the man's rage, along with his cactus hair, made a really fun combination, something to laugh at. The scary thing was how he managed to gather people at his side.

"We didn't come here to start a fight, Kibaou."

Diavel, who now had a different light in his eyes, suggested him to stop, although it sounded more like an order, which didn't really please Kibaou. The small man, older than Kirito, but almost the same height, faced the blue-haired man with eyes red of anger.

"Don't you dare to give me orders, Diavel! And don't you dare defending this dirty beater, you weak scum!"

Behind Diavel, the sound of a sword being unsheathed pierced through the air, and the arm wielding it would have swung past Kibaou's right arm if it hadn't been stopped by Diavel.

"Apologize to Diavel-sama NOW, you piece of….!"

"Don't, Lind, they are not worth it."

"What?! Now you think you are superior?!"

In the meantime, the four adventurers had sat down at a bench, except from Rain and Argo, the first being sat in the top of a column and the second on a tree. Argo muttered something.

"Nyahahaha! This is gettin' interesant."

Seemingly, the cactus' minions had more brain than him. They separated their pathetic leader from Lind, making a nice effort with the last one. Despite his slender shape, he was strong. The blue-haired man, looking at Lind with a disappointed look, calmly walked towards the black-haired boy, who was talking to Rain, that had jumped down from the column.

"Do you have a moment, Kirito?"

Kirito could do nothing but wonder the blue-haired guy's intentions. Now what, another hater to the group? Not that he really cared, but having not only one but two influential men against him would be a good thing.

"Yes of course, what do you want?"

"I just wanted to thank you for saving me back there. I want to let you know that I won't be that irresponsible next time."

The slight surprise in Kirito's eyes, and his open mouth made the shy Rain smile.

"So you too can be surprised, kirito?"

"So, who are the girls, crazy enough to stand besides a beater as his friends?"

The black-haired boy forced himself to close his mouth and speak.

"That girl with long, chestnut-color hair is Asuna, you met her the day of the meeting. And this one here is someone I met after coming to the second floor, Rain."

Diavel's pose tensed. He looked at the girl carefully and calmly, as if he was looking how much she could achieve in that world, only with her sword. When he noticed the throwing picks in her left waist, his eyes widened a bit before he returned to normal. Kirito did the same with the blue-haired guy, looking somewhere near 18 years old. He has changed. He was more cheerful before.

"And who is the other girl, the one in the tree?"

A drop of cold sweat flowed from Kirito's cheeks as he scratched his head.

"You better ask her, if I tell you, I won't end well. All I'll tell you is that you should make her angry."

The info broker jumped from the tree, as if she was listening to them. She walked past the fight with a smile, but hid herself in her hood until she arrived at the place where Kirito Diavel and Rain were.

"Well, they can't see us here. Good thing. How have ya been?"

She patted the shoulder of the now confused man in the silver armor. He frowned with his sky-blue eyebrows.

"Do I know you?"

The info broker took off her hood, an action that she had performed in public exactly three times, and smiled at the blue-haired man, whose eyes widened even more. When he replied, he did it with a low, yet cheerful tone.

"Argo-chan! How long has it been, two, three months? How are you doing?"

"Seriously, y'all should drop the 'chan' thingy, Ao-kun."

With a frown, Kirito tried to manage his thoughts, and opened his mouth, this time to speak. However, Rain was faster.

"So, you two know from before?"

Both the info broker and Diavel faced the sword user.

"Yeah, for quite a time, Re-chan."

"Then I don't get it. Why didn't you meet her earlier?"

"Well, the last time we saw, we got mad at each other."

"If you got so mad, why do you seem like really good friends?"

Both the info broker and the armored young man scratched their heads for a moment, the two deep in confusion. This time, the one to answer was the blue-haired man.

"Because it was a nonsense? Back then, we two, unlike of how people may think, acted really childishly. But now, we need friends, not enemies."

Neither Rain nor Kirito knew how to react to those words. Yeah, true, it's better to have friends than enemies, but their story sounds stupid. Fortunately, a well-timed Asuna came to save the day.

"The situation with those two is going a little bit too far. We need to go now."

With those words, the group managed to put an order into its members. Kirito thought it was really impressive how Asuna gave orders. Such a beautiful girl, yet that confident and serious. Not strange that she can manage us all in to formation. However, even if she managed us together, it was the hooded info broker that explained the strategy.

"We will head towards the west of this floor, past the savanna. There is a wasteland there, and the field boss, which needs to he defeated in order to open the labyrinth. Now listen up."

Argo stood in front of the group of players, who were nervously waiting for her instructions. When it came to managing allies together, the only one there that was popular and not hated was Asuna. However, the strategy always was made by Argo. The first floor's boss fight had been planned by her, only failing due to the change in patterns.

"The boss is called 'Bullbous Bow', a cow-like monster. In size, four meters high and six long.The attack pattern for this one is pretty simple. It will charge against anythin' in its path, turn around, then charge again. Over and over again. The safest way ain't the fastest, as usual. The three tanks will be parryin' its if necessary, so the others can damage it. Sword and rapier users, ya will attack when possible."

The strategy itself was pretty consistent at that moment, but the info broker, deep in her hood so nobody could see her face, continued.

"Dagger users, yer the fastest here. Your mission will be the most important. I want ya to draw it aggro, and head it towards the rocky formations out there. They will cause as much damage as twenty of our hits. That way it'll be safer."

The second part wasn't unexpected even to Kirito, who had been in the beta. Last time, a party of fifteen had been managed together to fight it, and it ended with two safely respawning at the Black Iron Palace. What Argo had planned had not been tried before. And obviously, the objection came soon.

"Wait, wait, how do you know that will work?! I haven't heard of environmental damage! Plus, you came with that dirty beater, who knows…!"

"Boss, I think its enough."

"Don't ever tell me….!"

Kibaou wasn't short. Okay, he wasn't the tallest guy on earth, just average. But when he pushed the almost two meter high man behind him, one could clearly a small ant pissing of an elephant.

"Something to say?"

"N-No, Walker"

Kibaou's voice sounded like a violin. Seeing that he was too shocked to continue, the man continued in his place. He was almost two meters high, the same as the axe wielder, Agil. The similarities didn't go further. This man had pale skin. His light-brown hair and ice-blue eyes made him look from somewhere near Norway, somewhere like that. He had a muscular complexion, not reaching the one of a bodybuilder, but the one who really used his muscles.

"As he said, my name is Walker. So, can we trust you.?"

The info broker, having been silent for awhile, nodded. For her, other than the three that were there with her, no one else mattered. I need to be cautious with this man.

"Of course."

"Well, you heard those two. Let's get going!"

With those words from Asuna, the group started moving, not without some wailing.

The entire group headed for the west entrance of the town.

 **13:34. December 8th. Wasteland. Floor 2. Aincrad**

"Master, are we there yet?"

The black-haired boy, not sweating due to impossibility, but feeling like so, didn't even bother facing the one who had asked.

"Master?"

The one who had asked, not other than Rain, didn't blush because the melting heat already had reddened her face.

"K-Kun! Kirito-kun!"

"Give it ten minutes, we are almost there. And I told you to drop the 'kun'"

The brown-haired girl hid herself in her hands. Master?! What was I thinking?! When her pride let herself rise her head again, she saw Kirito next to her. Chance! I have to ask him now.

"Kirito, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what do you want to know?"

"It's about Argo-chan."

Those words made both sword users slow their rhythm, until they were at the very end of the group. Once they made sure there was nobody listening, they resumed the conversation.

"What is it?"

"You see, she is always pretty kind. She teached me about this game, she told me about the anneal blade quest for free, and she is a really good person overall, but when she is with other people, she becomes violent."

"What did she do this time?"

"When we met, she was being assaulted by two men for info about a beta tester. Those two came together with a third man today with the same question. By the time I realised, she had cut down two of the man's fingers."

The black-haired boy finally let out a sigh of relief, successfully confusing the other sword user.

"Thank god, I thought she had done something serious."

"What do you mean?"

"Look, I don't know her much more than you do. We were just acquaintances in the beta, and friends now. All I can tell you is, if you make her angry, there are worse fates than death in this world."

A fate worse than death? What is he trying to tell me? Death is obviously the worst fate possible. Her train of thought stopped at the same time their group stopped moving just in time to see a short, familiar shape coming at them.

"How ya doin' kids?"

"Argo, come here, I have something to ask you."

Once again, like the time when she was afraid of Kirito discovering her, the entire body of the sword user tensed. What are you going to ask her?

"Ya'll say, Kii-bou."

"Well, we are the two, apart from Diavel, who know where that cow is. Five minutes from here. What is bugging me is this. In your master plan, we use three tanks and three dagger users. We only have two of each."

"Do ya think I would miss something big as that is? Nah, we agreed to meet here right now, at twenty to two."

Kirito frowned, and so did Rain. The black-haired boy looked at the brown haired sword user. Hmm, she too looks good with whiskers. Then he looked back at the info broker. She had actually mentioned three tanks and three dagger users, but she didn't mention backup.

"Ya should know them, their leader told me he knew ya."

"He knows me?"

"Yep, Kii-bou. I don't usually speak too much to my clients, so all I can say is that he was rather enthusiastic."

"I can't tell. I don't know anyone like that."

"Seriously, Kirito-kun, how could you have forgotten me by now?"

Argo smiled gently, and both sword users turned around to see a group of four young men in simple japanese-like armor. Kirito had not met the three in the background, but the one in the front reminded him of someone.

"Klein?"

"Whoa, you remember me after all! Yeah, Klein here, and this here are my friends, currently waiting for the guild quest, the 'Fuurinkazan'"

Kirito facepalmed as hard as he could.

"What kind of messed up name is that?"

"What?!"

The brown-haired sword user shyly smiled while looking at the samurai wannabe.

"I think it's kind of cool."

"See, Kirito-kun? The lady knows her business. Anyways, how have you been? That beater thing."

"Nice enough, the bad thing is that I have this one girl following me everywhere."

Now it was Klein and his guild who facepalmed.

"How is that a bad thing?"

Well-timed as usual, Asuna came from the front just in time to generate confusion.

"Kirito-kun, we arrived here!"

Instead of a facepalm, now Klein had his mouth wide open. He tried to speak, but from his mouth only came weird noises. A friend of his came to rescue him.

"Hmm, he is trying to say 'You lucky bastard! And you dare to complain?!'. Something like that."

"This guy is a pervert."

Kirito, Argo, Asuna and Rain left behind Klein, who was crying inside, and headed towards the boss place. As Argo had said, there were some rocky formations here and there, but no sight of the usual trembling cow and ox. When they were wondering if they had mistaken the place, a loud roar broke the artificial silence.

"Here it is."

The mob was big of it were to compare it to a player, but definitely wasn't the biggest, let alone the scariest. As far as Argo and Kirito were concerned, that award went to the fifth floor's mobs. The cow-like monster was about four meters high, and six from head to tail. Its red eyes showed that it wasn't happy at all.

"These won't work." said the info broker as she changed her claws for the dagger Rain had upgraded. "Let's hope for a stun!" Then, she turned around to face the entire group.

"About yer new partners, I explained the strategy to them before comin'. Do we all understand what we have to do?"

"Yeah!"

"Let's get to it right away."

The players managed together with a loud scream. The entire raid ran towards the The three tanks surrounded the cow at the safe distance of twenty meters. Behind them, sword and rapier users, Kirito, Asuna and Rain between them, prepared for the moment when the boss was stunned by the tanks. All around, the dagger users waited for their moment to shine. This time, the one to give the order to attack was Asuna.

"Go!"

The first tank, the tall man named Walker, took out a throwing pick and threw it at the mob's face. The boss let out a deafening roar, something rather strange for a cow, and faced him. He leaned backwards and then rushed towards Walker, only to be stopped by his shield, club and the players pushing him from behind.

"Now, attack!"

The four players behind him, two of Kibaou's warriors and Klein with one of his friends, jumped and slashed the boss in the head and feet. Five second later, and a quarter of its first HP bar gone, the Cow monster stood again. Now, the one to move was Argo.

"Here I come, prepare!"

The info broker jumped at the cow's neck, stabbed it with her dagger and then jumped away while throwing a pick to its left eye. Once again, the mob let out a loud roar and rushed at Argo's position. In the very last moment, the dagger user dodged it, its face meeting the rock.

"Groaaaargg!"

"Now!"

The three closest players, Kirito, Asuna and Rain, ran towards it and slashed it again. The combined damage from the boss smashing to rock and the players managed to drop it by a half of its HP bar.

The three players retreated when the boss stood up again.

"Gotta say, Argo-chan is a genius! It's working!"

"Yeah, Asuna-chan! Two or three more times, it won't take long!"

The next tank player, a friend of Klein's, seeing the lack of throwing picks, grabbed a rock and aimed at the boss. Once again, it turned around to face its attacker, and leaned backwards to charge its attack.

"Incoming!"

The cow-like monster once again rushed at the tank, only to see itself stopped and stunned. This time, with more people around, Klein and the rest of his friends, along with Kibaou and Lind, managed to drop the HP bar by a half, leaving the boss with three quarters of his last HP bar. Argo felt somehow proud because of her successful strategy. Okay, two, maybe three more attacks like that will make it.

Then those two players almost fucked everything up.

"Oi, blue-haired brat! You tried to leave me like trash back there!"

"What are you saying, cactus?! Focus on the fight!"

Seemingly, Lind had brain behind his sword, unlike Kibaou. However, what he had in swordplay and intelligence, he lacked in patience. The cactus-haired man insulted him once again, and he lost it.

"What did you say, bastard?!"

In the background, the other blue-haired man was shouting.

"Stop it, Lind!"

But Argo knew it wouldn't be enough. Of all the moments, why now, for fuck's sake! A loud roar stopped her thinking once again, and the boss charging its attack brought her back to reality.

"Ya two, cut it now! The boss is comin'!"

When necessary, people could react fast, really fast. Both men looked the way the info broker was pointing, and when they saw the monster, they ran away, but, unfortunately, being fast didn't mean not being clumsy. Lind made it, but Kibaou tripped over and fell to the ground. The entire raid remained silent for a moment, with only the roar of the monster, and the sound of its feet striking the ground breaking the silence.

"Move or somethin'!"

Argo ran towards the place where Kibaou was. Fuck! I won't make it in time to take him away. I have to do somethin'! The only thing the confused info broker could thing she could think of was to jump at the enormous boss and stab its eye with the dagger.

Not really a wise decision. Even if the boss turned around in the last moment with its balance lost, not running over the cactus-haired man, it managed to hurt Argo's leg with a horn and send her flying towards one rocky formation.

"Hugh!"

The impact was strong enough to take her hood off, revealing her auburn-hair, who not even Kirito and Asuna had seen. Only Rain, the dinner night. However, all the players were focused on the ongoing fight between Kibaou and Lind. The info broker rose her eyes in time to see the boss leaning back to charge its attack and her HP bar depleted by a half. She tried to run away, but when she did, her left leg showed a enormous hole, and the status 'broken bone'. In that moment, fear didn't show up. What she felt was ashamed for going to die in such a stupid way, saving such a stupid person. Is this really it? The boss shot across the plain facing the info broker, who closed her eyes…..

…..waiting for a moment that never arrived. A second after the boss started it's race, a loud metallic sound resonated through the plain. When Argo opened her eyes, she saw the tall man successfully stopping the boss with his shield, not without a great effort and without almost being sent flying too.

"Take cover, young lady, and leave this to us."

Rain came out of nowhere and grabbed the info broker's arm, strongly pulling it and taking her to a safe spot.

"Are you okay?! Are you feeling good?!"

"Yeah, yeah, Re-chan. As good as I can feel. Get back there, they need ya."

In the exact moment she said so, the man with the shield, Walker, leaned his shield and hit the monster in the leg, making it fall down.

"Enemy down! All units, ENGAGE!"

As if they were bees or ants, the fourteen players jumped at the boss with perfect coordination. A curved sword, two daggers, a club, three rapiers, a two handed sword and six one handed ones swung down at the 'Bullbous Bow' at the exact same time. After that, the boss tried to stand, but once again, Walker hit its leg. After that fall, it was done.

"We did it!"

The shouting didn't seem to stop. The fourteen warriors congratulated each other, happily looking at the 'Boss Defeated' window, except from Kibaou. Even Lind approached Kirito and his friends to thank them.

"Sorry if I had any wrong first impression, Kirito-kun. If Diavel-sama is in good terms with you, I am no one to oppose."

"Thank you? I didn't do much, though. Walker-san and that hooded girl did more than me."

"Don't say that. By the way, did you get the last attack bonus again?"

"Not this time, let me see…"

"It was me."

Both sword users, along with Asuna, who had just arrived by their side, faced the two-meter-high man. Kirito frowned. His shield was seriously dented, but neither his armor nor club had the slightest damage. Considering that he had tanked the boss twice, that was close to a miracle.

"I landed the last hit."

Then the club user looked where Argo was sitting in the rock, from where she had not moved.

"The strategy was yours, so the victory is yours. I noticed that you use a dagger. Keep this, you will find a good use to it, young lady."

Walker opened a trade window, in which he put an item. He pressed the send button, and a moment later, the same window appeared next to the info broker. She hesitated for a second, but soon pressed the button. A dagger materialised.

"Swordbreaker."

"Designed to parry and block. Hope you like it. It will be useful if you intend to get those martial arts."

Three confused players looked at the shield and club user. They had told him, and everyone else, that they were there to defeat the boss, but never did they say their true intentions behind. Rain's curiosity finally broke the silence.

"How did you know, Walker-san?"

"That young lady over there was saying it all the trip to here."

His finger was pointing, as obvious, at a certain chestnut-haired girl, now awkwardly looking at the floor. The man let out a warm and wide smile, which didn't match his intimidating body and shape. From behind the group, an annoying voice came out as a man pushed everyone to make himself audible. Kibaou.

"Wait, I recognise her now! She is that info broker, the one who sold incorrect intel about the first boss! If you think about it, she might be a beta tester! And you want to give that to….?!?!"

The move the giant did wasn't expected by anyone in the raid. Instead of shutting up and waiting for the cactus-haired man to shut up too, he moved his arm to reach Kibaou's neck, grabbed him and hung him mid-air. The breathing of everyone there stopped for a second.

"Two weeks since we met, and everyday you come up with that bullshit. I'm starting to get tired."

The fierce fire in Walker's eyes could only be compared to the amazement in everyone's faced and the terror in Kibaou's eyes, who was trying to escape.

"You know what they say where I come from? The weak don't have the right to speak to the strong."

He released his hand, and Kibaou fell to the ground, and ran as fast as he could behind a rock. The man turned around, as if nothing had happened, to face the only person not amazed or scared.

"So, will you keep it, young lady?"

"Sure."

"Then, I should go back to the first floor. I' take my boss. Diavel, you too should go back."

The blue-haired man swallowed saliva, and replied in a firm, yet cautious manner.

"Yeah, I will. Lind, let's go."

"As you wish, Diavel-sama."

With that, only the four adventurers and the Furinkazan were left in the plain. Argo, with her leg again working, stood up andKlein, who seemingly was able to speak again, engaged in a forced conversation, saying what everybody was thinking.

"So, what was that last part? Man, that was scary!"

"I don't know. For now, we shouldn't make him angry, but he was right, we should head back to town and continue…."

"Sorry but no."

Both males looked at Argo. She was heavily frowning, thinking about something that must have really be bugging her.

"I'm not waiting another day for that quest. At least I am goin' now to finish it. What level are y'all?"

"Between 11 and 12."

"Cool, I'm level 10."

"Argo, I know it's still early, but we are all tired. We should call it a day and rest."

"It will only be smashing a rock. C'mon, Kii-bou. I won't ask you for help at least for a week."

"You are such a little girl."

The black-haired boy gave his friends an uncomfortable look. Both Asuna and Rain looked extremely tired, even if you couldn't get physically tired in that world.

"Are you two okay with that?"

Both girls gave him a tired smile back.

"Yeah, sure."

The samurai wannabe scratched his head. Then, he gave the black-haired boy an awkward smile.

"Then, I will head back to town, Kirito-kun. My boys are tires and we are not interested in martial arts. Sorry."

"Don't worry, Klein, and good luck."

"Keep yourself and this girls safe, dude."

They saw how the japanese like group ran away energetically, disappearing after five minutes. Rain looked the way they had disappeared.

"Hmm, they are good people. It's nice to see that not everyone hates you, Kirito."

Kirito let out a sad smile while facing Rain. She felt a little bit bad for him, being alone.

"It is. I have you too."

That made the.brown-haired girl feel even worse. Am I supposed to make him feel better? A second later, the info broker interrupted their little 'moment' with a curious statement.

"Hold on, Kii-bou. We're just acquaintances."

"C'mon, what would you do without me, you self-proclaimed info broker?"

"Huh?!"

Argo jumped over a unprepared Kirito, bringing him to the ground. They started a fight, her trying to hold him down, and him trying to stand up.

"Let go of me, Argo!"

"Ya wish!"

"Ehem!"

Asuna stood in front of those two with her fist raised and her right hand on her rapier, but a sadistic smile in her face.

"Argo-chan, you asked us to help you today, didnt you? Then, we should go down to the south."

The two stopped their fighting and looked at the chestnut-haired girl. Asuna held her hand in front of the info broker to help her stand.

"The faster we do so, the fasted we will go back to town. Let's go, people."

 **16:23 December 8th. Southern sector. Floor 2 Aincrad.**

"Here we are, Argo."

The sword user named Rain was struggling to fight against the heat, but managed not to drop to the ground. I want a beaaaach! The group of four adventurers, her included, were less than a hundred meters away from the place where the quest rock was. The one to break the silence was, as usual, Asuna.

"Kirito-kun, do you think we will break it now?"

The tired black-haired boy nodded without really doing it.

"I think so. What do you think, Rain."

"Yeah. I-I think we will be able to. Argo?"

"I dunno. I have an alternative plan, though"

"Which plan?"

Argo sighed tiredly. "I'll keep that to myself. Ya'd call me reckless again."

The black-haired boy, now absolutely exhausted, got nervous due to the talk of the two girls.

"Shut up a minute, will you? We are here already."

Indeed, they had arrived at the place where the big rock was. Next to it, the old whiskered man was sleeping in the chair again. The one who lost it now was Asuna.

"Get up, you old man!"

Behind her, Kirito whispered in Rain's ear. "And she told me yesterday that education is the most important thing."

While she laughed, the old man hopped and landed next to Asuna, scaring her again.

"Kyaaa!"

"Don't be such a crybaby, Aa-chan."

"I see that my disciples…."

The black-haired boy shook his hand in front of the old man's face.

"Yeah, ojii-san. Just take us there, ok?"

The quest icon on top of the NPC's head, something that Rain hadn't noticed before, changed and showed an icon pointing at the direction where the rock where. As the last time, it took five minutes for them to arrive there. It was the same as last time, a tIn the moment they arrived at the place, the info broker excused herself.

"Remember that lil' ol' plan of mine? Gotta look for a very important part of it. But first, Kii-bou, do you have any throwin' picks?"

"Yes, but what do you want me to do with them?"

The info broker calmly walked ten meters away from the black-haired boy and opened her hand mid-air at the height of her shoulders.

"Aim here and throw it."

"What? Why?"

"Just do as I say, Kii-bou!"

Kirito sighed. What on earth is she going to do? His hand aimed for a throwing pick, hanging from the left side of his waist. He aimed where the info broker was pointing and threw it. The next thing he saw was a shadow moving faster than his eye could see. Argo's arm. She smiled and showed the pick, now in her hand. That confused the sword user.

"What are you going to do?"

"Ya'll see!"

With that said, the whiskered info broker ran away. What he was going to do, nobody knew. They didn't even try to guess, they were too tired to do so. The first one to show in front of the rock. He awkwardly looked at the two remaining girls behind him. If I fail, this will be really awkward.

"Here I come!"

He swung his hand down. In the moment his hand contacted the rock, no great sparks, no great beam of light appeared. In fact, the rock didn't even move. The black-haired boy looked at the girls behind him.

"It didn't work, guess we will come back tomorrow and…"

"Kirito-kun, look!"

If he kept turning around that often, his neck would hurt. When he looked at the rock, a tiny crack appeared. Soon after, the rock split into two perfect halves. The black haired sword user opened his skill tree. A new rock appeared.

"Here it is. 'Martial arts'. Let me equip it."

"Wait, wait! You are definitely not going to check that until I have it too, Kirito-kun!"

The chestnut-haired girl walked towards the rock. Nobody could blame her for not having a steel will. She swung her arm down as soon as she arrived. The result was exactly the same.

"Yay, I did it! No more broken bones!"

"Was that your motivation? Really?"

The black-haired sword user approached the rock while the other two were arguing. It was one big rock. She didn't have any experience in martial arts. Can I really do it? She wiped those thoughts of her mind and swung her hand down. The rock broke again.

"So what, are you going to do…. Ah, nice you did it."

Kirito and Asuna smiled at her. Crap, splitting and going back to solo will be hard. The black haired boy opened a window.

"Oh, wait, a message from Argo."

[Come to the middle of the plain, Kii-bou, and fast.]

"Guys, Argo needs me, stay here for a second, okay?"

"We'll stay here, Kirito-kun. Come back soon, will you?"

The black-haired boy ran towards the middle of the plain, as the info broker had said. The whiskers on his face had vanished, as the ones of the girl. Crap, that means the girl's are gone too. Well, Argo still has them. In his mind, he pictured an image of the whiskered info.broker, with cat ears apart from the whiskers, and letting out a cat-like sound. "Nyan". His back felt cold and his entire body shook. Cute, but way to creepy as well. Better not get impossible pictures as a cute and gentle Argo. When the young teenager arrived at the plain, he saw the info broker twenty meters away, in front of a 'Trembling Cow'. She noticed him, probably due to her search skill, and greeted him, by shouting.

"Kii-bou! My plan is startin' now! When this mob starts to run, head towards the rock, no matter what!"

That said, the info broker reached for something in her inventory. When the black-haired boy looked more closely, it looked like a metal piece. Only when the info broker jumped and trusted it into the mob's forehead, he realised.

"No fucking way."

"Run, Kii-bou, it's chasin' ya!"

The roar of the cow-like monster made Kirito run away like if his life was on the line, mainly because it was. As for the info broker, she was having a nice time riding the monster's back.

"Nyahahahahaha! Ya should try this, Kii-bou!"

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU WHEN THIS ENDS, YOU SELF-PROCLAIMED INFO BROKER!"

"Ya don't have time to be salty, just run!"

"ARGO!"

Kirito would have been extremely thankful if he had been faster than that cow, but the developers must have been laughing at him in the exact moment. "Hahaha, how naive!" In terms of raw speed, the black-haired boy was the same as the cow, which meant that if he stopped, he would become a black-haired pancake. Running as fast as he was, his sight reached the place where the girls were after twenty seconds.

"YOU TWO, OUT OF THE WAY, NOW!"

If the sudden request of the boy didn't surprise them, the huge cow chasing him, with a whiskered girl on top of it certainly did. The two aimlessly ran away in different directions, leaving a free path for Kirito. The first and only thing that came across his mind was taking shelter behind the quest rock. He rushed there and braced for impact.

"Roaaaaargg!"

The monster collided with the rock, shattering it into a million pieces, unlike the slow crack that the other three had managed to get. Then, the huge body shattered into polygons. When the black-haired boy and the two other girls were able to see again through the dust cloud, the info broker was victoriously standing there.

"Got it!"

"How can you be that reckless?!"

The info broker gave him a nervous smile, and patted his shoulder.

"Hey, Kii-bou, before you start, what do ya think that took me almost ten minutes before I PMed ya?"

The anger in the boy's face, not a real one, but the one someone has when he is the victim of a prank, was replaced with confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"As dense as usual. I was lookin' for a low-level mob like this, level 7. And, before ya continue, I was intendin' to draw it aggro against me if it got to close to ya. Everythin' calculated. That thing couldn't have killed ya even if it tried."

"It tried!"

Behind the two, Asuna and Rain showed some kind of amazement.

"Woah, that was a really good point, Argo! Using the cow to break the rock!"

"Was that your plan?! How did you know it would work?! And the throwing pick thing?!"

"I got this 'alternative solution' some time ago, Kii-bou."

"Ah, you mean when…?"

The info broker had a killer fire in her eyes.

"Kii-bou, now I have a martial arts skill. My next blow will lower yer HP, just sayin'."

The boy's back froze. Better not tease her. Behind him, Rain looked at him, suddenly feeling uneasy.

"Well, guys, a promise is a promise. We will split now."

Kirito and Asuna looked at her.

"You don't have to go if you don't want to, Rain-chan. It will be fun having a girl to talk to. Argo is going to split too, and anyways she is just too much of a teasing person."

"Hey!"

The info broker behind her shouted, but soon tried to convince her.

"I'm not gonna insist, Re-chan, but I highly recommend ya stickin' to those two, ya'll have better survivability. I can handle my own, I gave ya my reasons to leave, but will ya be okay on yer own?"

The brown-haired sword user was shaking a bit, but not enough for them to notice. I don't really want to leave, but…

"I will be okay, I am not alone. At least I have someone I can talk too."

Her three only friends looked at each other in concern, but if they agreed to something, Rain didn't notice. The last one to talk to her was Kirito.

"Okay then, Rain. Take care of yourself and make sure to PM us if you have any problem."

"I will, dont worry. See you all sometime soon!"

Rain walked towards the town, calmly but without stopping. After five minutes, her friends could no more see her.

"Well, I can't understand why she would like to go solo. It's pretty lonely."

The two girls stared at him like if he had just evolved from algae.

"What?"

"She didn't want to."

The black-haired boy widened his eyes

"If not, why did she go then?"

Asuna didn't have the answer to that question. She lowered her head.

"I… I don't know, Kirito-kun."

"I do."

Once again, the two players turned around to look at the info broker.

"But I won't tell ya."

"C'mon, Argo."

"C'mon nothin', Kii-bou, I promised."

"Is a promise of yours worth something?"

"Say what ya want, I won't tell ya."

"I'm going after her."

"Don't make it more difficult to her."

When she get's stubborn, there is no helping it.

"Anyways, what are you going to do now?"

"Usual business, Kii-bou. Buy this, sell that, join the boss scout team and the third floor guide."

"Are you sure you want to leave?"

Argo looked directly at the sword user's eyes, then at Asuna's.

"Yeah, pretty sure. Now, if ya didn't notice, it took us three hours to reach this place, and it's almost seven, when the sun sets. I'm goin' back to town. See ya two!"

The info broker also ran away towards the nearest town. After another five minutes, it was only Kirito and Asuna there.

"Kirito-kun, we too should go back, it will get dark."

"Wait a minute, please."

"Why?"

"Didn't you hear hear Argo? The sun will set soon."

"I see."

Both players slowly walked towards the end of the mountain. Below a crimson sky,.

the two players sat down at the cliff, their legs hanging from it. The sun was getting closer and closer to the horizon.

"What do you think about Rain-chan and Argo-chan, Kirito-kun?"

The boy let out a loud sigh, which made the chestnut-haired girl wonder if she had been too straightforward. In real life, she had spoken to a lot of different people, but a Hikikomori wasn't one of them. Fortunately, he answered.

"Rain is a good person. A little bit shy, but really kind. But really brave."

'And Argo-chan?"

"Argo is a different story."

"But she isn't like they picture her. 'A heartless monster, capable to sell her own grandmother for col.' How can someone gain such a bad fan in such a short time?"

"You are right, she isn't like that with us. She is really violent with other people. Something that you should always take into consideration when speaking to her is that no matter how spontaneous it might be, she has it planned."

The sun was how almost touching the horizon. In other circumstances, she would have been crazily blushing due to the presence of a boy that neat to her. This wasn't the case. In the moment she stopped those thoughts, the sun touched the horizon.

"Woah, beautiful!"

"Such a disappointment."

The girl stared at the boy, who was looking at the sky himself.

"The sun sets by the west, I can't have a clear view from here."

"You are a mood killer, Kirito-kun."

"Asuna."

The chestnut-haired girl looked at the sun, which had almost disappeared.

"Hmm?"

"Next time, remind me to go watch a sunset from the west."

Asuna got her eyes off the sky, and aimed them at the black-haired boy. He was surprisingly calm, taking into consideration that he had almost died twenty minutes ago, and that he could be in the edge of death at any time again soon. For some crazy reason, that calm of his bothered and pissed her off. How can he be this calm in a world like this? He doesn't look any older than fourteen. Has he already accepted his death?! Well, I won't! All those furious thoughts mixes together, and the chestnut-haired girl opened her mouth to speak. To her surprise, angry words didn't come out.

"I will, Kirito-kun."


	4. Chapter 4: Bonding

**20:45 December 29. Graveyard, Floor 5, Aincrad.** The blue-clad girl switched between her swordbreaker dagger to a curved sword, that, surprisingly, even of it looked pretty much like a katana, was not considered a katana, but a curved sword. Due to her 'status', the use of a sword breaker was absolutely necessary, but when fighting against monsters, her curved sword and her one-handed sword were more useful.

"Here goes nothing."

The girl entered the graveyard. Soon, the skeletons spawned, looking really pleased to have to kill her. That didn't scare her, she had by far seen more scary things, like that one info broker that had sold her the intel.

Supposedly, the loot she was after was deep into the grave of a king. She had to clear her way inside it, find a specific room, open a chest and take the item. No pushover, no hard bosses, no anything.

This will be a piece of cake.

The first skeleton that felt like attacking didn't last longer than three seconds. A quick skill reduced it to polygons. The same for the second, the third and so on. The night was supposed to have full moon, but the cloudy sky made it so a normal person wouldn't be able to see anything. Before entering the underground yard, she tripped with a stone, her face meeting the ground and slightly depleting her HP.

"Ouch!"

Of course, she could not feel pain, but the feeling of falling on her face without sensing any pain was weird. The complaint was more a habit than a real thing now.

"Seriously, who put that rock there?"

The fact that she was talking to herself didn't help her make up her mind. It had been more than one month on her own, and she was starting to miss company. Her daily routine was getting up, going to ajt dungeon or mob-crowded area, farm until noon, eat, farm again, then sleep. Wash, rinse, repeat. Only when she discovered that some dungeons had special loots deep inside, she felt like she could enjoy her time there.

"Chest, chest, chest. Where are you?"

She checked the door. It was open, but the inside was empty. Soon after, she entered the room and checked the floor. She was looking for some slab, or button. She moved her eyes to the wall.

"Bingo!"

A small hole, big enough to put a hand in, could be seen. The blonde treasure hunter gave her surroundings a quick gaze before pushing her arm into the hole, feeling a lever and firmly moving it. She heard a click. The entire wall twisted and reorganised itself to reveal a little passage.

As supposed, it was not enemy-free. Skeleton after skeleton, almost twenty enemies appeared inside the corridor. Instead of fighting, as an average player would do, the treasure hunter switched her sneak skill on. It still took her ten minutes to carefully dodge every single skeleton without being noticed, but she managed herself.

The corridor lead to a big chamber. At least forty meters long, and the same width. The same for the height. The lack of decoration greatly surprised the blonde girl. Every dungeon she had gone in was highly ornamented, both with sculptures and paintings, so it was pretty rare to see a room completely empty. The only remarkable thing where the tons of bones spread all over the ground.

"Where are you, chest?"

The young girl glanced through the room. The thing that she liked about treasure hunting was the fact that it usually involved long research and long quests. She had picked up that one because of the reward, a weapon called 'Dragon Sword'. A weak gleam appeared in the dark.

"Gotcha!"

The treasure hunter calmly and happily walked towards the chest. Yeah, I deserve a easy quest every now and then. The black chest was, surprisingly, highly decorated. She sliced the lock with her curved sword and opened it. To very much of her dismay, it was empty.

"What the…?"

She didn't have time to complain. A loud roar made her turn around, to see a demon-like monster. It was wielding a two-handed sword, and the red light in its eyes was everything but friendly.

"So it will be like this? That girl needs to check her info."

Before she could react, the boss jumped at her. Even with that gigantic sword it was pretty fast, compared to her. Unfortunately, she had no parrying weapons, so it was a speed fight. After almost a minute of dodging and moving around, she landed a hit, only to see it blocked by the skin of the monster.

Resistant to slash?! The treasure hunter panicked for a moment. She had encountered monsters resistant to slash before, it took two or three more attacks to end them, but never a boss. This was a particularly weak boss with just a single HP bar, so even a solo player like her could take it down, but it would be nearly impossible if it was slash-resistant. All those thoughts, along with the panic, didn't help her. She couldn't even defend properly. Hit after hit landed at the girl's weapon, marking her retreat every time further. Finally, the unfocused girl made a mistake. A downward slice striked her weapon, shattering it into polygons. Fast as the wind, the demon got a different attack stance.

Shit.

A sudden brown gleam lightened the room, followed by a sword, this time one handed, that prevented the sword from slashing through the treasure hunter's chest. Surprised enough of still having a head, the girl looked at her savior. The wielder was revealed to be a hooded person. First, she thought that the info broker had come to help her, but the clothes were almost worn out and falling. The sword gleamed now bright blue and the hooded shape performed a four hit skill 'Horizontal Square'. Three hits landed on the boss' chest, and the fourth on its neck, and with that, it exploded.

An amazed and still frightened treasure hunter looked at the hooded shape. It had the shape of a male. His clothes, almost worn out, yet still covering his skin without letting anyone see a brief square of it. On his hands, black leather gloves covered his hands, and boots for his feet. He closed the chest and looked back at the girl.

"Ggurrrgggh"

Now the one surprised was, apart from the treasure hunter, was the hooded person, or at least that was what the treasure hunter could tell without seeing his face. He smashed his chest with his fist, making a horrible sound.

"Sorry, it's been long since I used this throat of mine."

Are you fucking kidding me?! The treasure hunter had really a lot of questions to ask, but when she looked at his weapon, all those faded. She was about to ask the man about the sword when a gloved hand appeared in front of her.

"Come. Are you okay, miss?"

The 'miss' thing caught the girl unprepared. No One in that world would call a girl miss. Both the lack of girls and the stupidness of the boys made that a fact.

"Y-Yeah."

"I don't know whether to call your actions a product of bravery or idiocy."

"Hey!"

"I am right, there is no denying it. Are you sure you are ok?"

The caring attitude of the stranger did nothing but annoy the treasure hunter, as if the one speaking to her was her father. After all, she was a teenager. Those kind of things made her burn inside.

"I shall take that as a yes. We should leave, miss. The demon will come back, in the forests we will be safe."

The doubts flying through the girl's threatened to overflow and come down her ears. She wanted to solve some of them, but the man, ran through the entrance.

"Hey, wait for me!"

 **21:05 December 29th. Forest of wandering souls. Floor 5 Aincrad.**

The fire was slowly burning the wood. It didn't burn as said, but slowly reducing the durability of the wood and finally reducing it to polygons. By the time the hooded man and the treasure hunter were finishing their dinner, three trunks had been consumed.

"I am afraid the quality of the food isn't much. This place has changed a lot."

"It's been just two days since the players opened this floor. What could have changed?"

It was hard to tell, but the blonde girl was sure the man was confused. She could imagine him raising an eyebrow.

"Players?"

The girl looked at the top of his savior's head. She had mistaken the colors. The cursor wasnt orange, as she had thought, but yellow, so the person in front of her wasn't a person at all, he was an NPC. An immense relief came down her spine.

With my orange cursor I have enough.

She looked on top of herself. Indeed, the shape there, which under normal circumstances would have been green, was shining bright orange. For the last two months, the only ones who had not tried to attack her on sight had been the info broker that sold her the intel and the NPC in front of her.

"Nevermind. Thank you for saving me and treating me to this food."

"You don't have to thank. It is a motto of mine not to let anyone in difficulties alone."

The hooded man spoke in a way that seemed too polite for someone who lived in a forest and wore worn out clothes. The blonde girl looked around again. To the right, a little tent stood next to a tree. Even NPCs like a good sleep, huh? However, what really drew her attention was the sword lying on the ground.

"Is that sword yours?"

"It used to. Now it is just a reminder."

Now the curiosity was really killing her. That sword, with the dragon-like handle and a long blade was without mistake the dragon sword. Why and how an NPC had it was a complete mistake for the blonde girl.

"How do you have that sword?"

"Wait for it, miss. I might have seen you are reliable enough in combat, but I have still to see if you are reliable as a person. Tomorrow I will do as usual, go around slaying things. Come with me."

The thoughts in the treasure hunter's head fastened to light speed. Of course I can follow him, but I still need to carry on climbing this damn castle. I'm level 15 now, so when the next floor opens, I will have to leave him here.

"What if you follow me?"

The hooded shape turned around to face her.

"Pardon me?"

"What if you come with me? I won't be able.to stay here forever. I can treat us two to an Inn room, it will be better than sleeping here."

"Why would you do that? Why would I trust you to begin with?"

"My name is Philia."

If the info broker had been there she would have probably kicked her. The only 'free' advice she gave her was to never give her name to strangers. Once again, with his unseen face turning to face her, the man sighed.

"I see. I shall tell you my name too. Back when I still had some honor, people called me Gokken."

"That is a strange name."

"I had never heard Philia before."

"One more thing. You don't have to do it if you don't want to, but I find it hard to trust someone whose face I haven't seen before"

For the first time, the man hesitated.

"My face isn't something your young eyes would be able to see."

"So you don't want to?"

"Not that. I just say it won't be pleasant for you."

"Bring it on. I sure have seen creepy things"

"Well, don't complain later."

The man reached for his hood. What will it be? An attractive face? An ugly one? Someone difficult to watch? All those possibilities flew through her head just in the time the man pulled his hood back. Her heart almost stopped.

"I warned you. This face was not something a kid like you should see."

She could expect ugliness. She could expect a deformed face. She could even expect his to have a female face, which wouldn't have matched his voice, but would have been funny. What she didn't expect was the total lack of face. She looked carefully at his thin limbs. There was no mistaking it.

The man who had saved him was a skeleton warrior, just like the ones she had killed before.

 **22:00 December 29th. Horunka village. Floor 1 Aincrad**

"...and that man told me he was a clearer, imagine it, Rain-oneechan! I heard they are the fiercest warriors in the world!"

Having been sleeping in that house for almost a month, Rain was getting used not to pay for food or a room. She still didn't understand why they had let her stay at their place, but the offer was too good to reject.

"Yes, the clearers are the strongest! I saw the boss of the second floor by myself. It was almost six meters high!"

"Ah, true, you too are a clearer, oneechan! So you are as strong as that man, Walker-san!"

In the past days, along with Asuna and Kirito, another 'legend' had risen. The man that had lead them to victory back in the second floor had made it as a top clearer. He went for a tank build, quite uncommon.

Rain gave Akino a awkward smile for various reasons. First, she wasn't a clearer, no matter how you looked at it. Her main scheme was to hide, throw a pick and get XP. The second reason was that every time she called her oneechan, and she did it every half a minute, something hurted deep inside.

"I am not really a clearer, not at all. I know some of them, but that's all."

An expression of disappointment appeared in Akino's face

"And have you heard of that boy, the one called the beater?"

Everything froze in Rain's body. Talking about any of her friends was a delicate subject.

"They say he is a demon, a bad person that steals others bounties and stuff."

"Y-You know, I don't think he is that bad."

The little girl faced her with curiosity.

"Have you talked to him?"

"Yes, a few times. You remember the girl that came with us about a month ago? They all say bad things about her."

"But Argo-oneechan is a good person!"

"That is what I mean. You don't have to listen to everyone."

So scratched the sides of her face, not long ago covered by whiskers. That reminded her of the info broker, and the info broker reminded her of Asuna and Kirito. How are they doing?

"I want to be as you someday!"

The sword user faced the little girl. She expected the usual happy and innocent smile, but she found a serious expression and a determined gaze in her eyes. Suddenly scared of the stupidity the girl could do, she went for the easy solution, laughing at her.

"Hahahahaha! How funny!"

Akino gave the brown haired girl a confused look.

"Oneechan?"

"You as a swordswoman? You are too tiny!"

Getting all red, the little blonde girl made a pouty face. Seemingly, she wasn't used to be laughed at.

"Come on, oneechan! Don't be bad!"

"Akino, time to sleep!"

As usual, around ten in the night, the mother of the little girl called her and took her to her bed. She is still a little girl. But what Rain was really thinking about was what the girl had said. She wants to be like me? Why? I don't have anything special. If she got to know Kirito she would want to be like him. It's just kid's things.

While she was trapped in her thoughts, the woman came out of the room. As usual, she only greeted her for the night. This time, though, was something else.

"You shouldn't force yourself, Rain-san. It looks like you have been going too far recently. I have heard reports of three players going to train everyday at the front line. I suppose the brown haired girl they talk about is you."

And once again, Rain was caught off guard.

"I won't ask you to stay away from those things, but you still look like a kid to me. You can behave as a child sometimes."

That said, the woman disappeared behind the door of her room, not without her words greatly impacting Rain. She had gone training so often that she did no longer consider it something unusual. Was she overdoing it? With those things in mind, the sword user headed to her room.

 **23:21 December 29th A small village. Floor 5, Aincrad**

Kirito opened the door of his room. Maybe he should say their room. Due to the lack of free rooms, he and Asuna had been forced to sleep in the same room. The first she had done was push her own bed as far as possible from his. "Try to do something weird and you'll regret it!"

As if he didn't know. She had fallen asleep half an hour before, and he was now trying to go on his nightly leveling trip. Calmly walking through the inn door, the black-haired started to wonder what could have happened to his friends. Neither Argo's or Rain's names were crossed, that was a relief, but there were fates worse than death. When he arrived at the town end, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Woaaaaah!"

He turned around as fast as he could, and, contrary to what someone could think, when he didn't see anyone he calmed down a bit.

"Seriously, Kizmel, I have told you a thousand times. What would they think if they saw a beater yelling like a baby?"

"Ah, sorry, Kirito. I should have disabled my Mistmoon cloak."

Suddenly, a tall shape materialised next to the black haired boy. Dark skin, purple hair, serious expression, those mixed in the face of the woman in front of Kirito. Her most outstanding feature wasn't that though, it was her long, pointy ears what really caught everyone's attention, or would if she let anyone except from him and Asuna lay an eye on her.

"Why are you going out again, Kirito? And without telling Asuna."

That elf warrior had been following them for two entire floors. After they finished the elf war quest in the third floor. Supposedly, after they had explained Kizmel's queen how the flying castle worked, she had allowed the dark elf to follow them until floor 10.

"You already know, I have to be a step ahead. Even if I want Asuna to leave, it is my duty to protect her until she does."

"Huh, and why is it so?"

What does she mean? Lately, the quick and accurate responses from the dark elf had made him think if she was a real AI. He had soon discarded this. No real AI had been produced yet.

"Be-Because she is a girl, I guess?"

"She can protect herself for sure. Now tell me, what is your plan for the night?"

"Going here and there, kill some mobs, level up. You don't have to come if you don't want to."

Kizmel sighed and, in front of Kirito's amazed eyes, slid two fingers down and opened the player window.

"So, if I remember correctly, this here is that 'level' you talk about."

"Wait, you can open a place window? How?"

"Well, I practised a bit after seeing you do it. I am currently level 15, just two levels lower than you."

The black-haired boy sank in his thoughts. He wasn't used to go out with someone in the night, not to mention a woman, and, if course, let alone an attractive one. He wiped both his thoughts and haces blush which came when he remembered the time he, Asuna and Kizmel had gone relaxing in hot springs.

"Okay, we should go then, we must be back by the time Asuna wakes. She can be really…… sensitive."

"Indeed. We shall go then."

The two warriors walked away from the town, most of the time taking detours where players seemed to be. The dark elf had been really untrusting with humans, the only ones she was confident with were Kirito and Asuna.

It is strange. She has grown a lot. In the beta she died every single time we tried to take her quest. I never expected this to go well. Kirito didn't know what to think about her. When they finished their quest, she just appeared next to them, saying that she owed them everything and would help them as much as she could. For obvious reasons, she didn't go to the boss fights with them, but she was always there in the field trips.

"Kirito, I heard this area is well know due to a high wasp population."

"Oh, is that so? They don't drop anything too strong."

"Yes, but if I remember correctly, you get a lot of experience.

That said, they arrived at a open field in the middle of an open field in the forest. It wasn't as dense as the third floor, but the constant darkness made it by far more unpleasant. Soon, a little group of wasps appeared. Instead of the usual pattern of yellow and black, those wasps were completely black. Their hard exoskeletons and black maws made it clear as water that they were not friendly.

"Kizmel, let's split. I will fight some on my own. When we both kill 30 wasps, we will call it a day."

"Okay, then I leave you with those."

The dark elf unsheathed her scimitar and equipped her shield and ran into the forest. Only half a month before, she would have completely refused, mainly because she was part of a quest, but she was now some kind of 'free' NPC, so she could now see the strategies of her allies. The black haired boy himself unsheathed his own sword.

"Come at me!"

The flying monsters flew in his direction, thankfully one at a time. Seeing how hard their skin was, Kirito went for a sword skill. The upward strike of a slant cut right through the wasp, not without causing Kirito's own HP to decrease by merely ten points due to how much force he had put into that strike.

The wasp was reduced to polygons. The same happened to the second, third and the one following them. If you didn't like intense grinding, SAO would be a nightmare for you. It wasn't absolutely necessary, as most RPGs, you would obtain the basic equipment just by continuing to fight, but the best equipment came through intense grind, and everybody wanted those. He had heard Walker, the coleader of the Aincrad Liberation Squad, say something about it.

"In this kind of world, there are three kinds of people. Those who stay away from danger, those to make an effort to face it, and dead people."

Deeply sinking in his thoughts, Kirito didn't realise that almost an hour had passed, and he had killed his twenty-ninth wasp. The last one came fast like a bullet, but was easily stopped by a 'Horizontal Square' sword skill. The last of the wasps exploded. The black haired boy gave out a sigh of exhaustion, even if it was theoretically impossible to get tired, and sat down next to a line of trees so dense that it was almost hard for him to move through. He was about to get something to eat from his inventory when the buzzing of thirty wasps pierced his ears. In front of them, there was a familiar purple haired female.

"Kizmel!"

If the worried yelling of Kirito reached her, she didn't seem to get affected by it. In her face, there wasn't any kind of fear, but the focus of an experimented warrior. She looked at Kirito and disappeared.

It took Kirito five entire second to realise that Kizmel had used her Mistmoon cloak, and those five second where the ones used by the dark elf to cross the thirty meters between them, surprising Kiriro again.

"Holy….! Dont do that!"

"My apologies, Kirito. It looks like you have completed your hunt."

"Well, I have… Wait, no! You had almost thirty wasps behind you!"

"I still do."

Kizmel took a throwing peak from her left arm and aimed somewhere behind the trees. A quick look revealed that her objective was the group of wasps.

I am so dead now. Everytime I come across those picks, something ridiculously dangerous happens.

The little and pointy piece of metal hit one of the monsters in the back. The whole group of wasps turned around, their red eyes fixed in Kizmel. A cold swear flowed down the black-haired boy. Kirito opened his arms and began running.

"Kizmel, RUN!"

But the dark elf didn't move a bit. When the black haired boy went back to pull her by the arm, he heard a deafening crack. When he was able to open his eyes again, he saw thirty furious monsters in front of him. The biggest one had its maws only twenty centimeters away from Kizmel's face, yet she didn't even move the slightest.

"H-How?"

"Their wings and legs."

Looking carefully, Kirito noticed how their wings and legs had, in fact, prevented the monsters from continuing any further.

"Now they can't continue chasing me. Could you please retreat eight or nine meters?"

The boy did as the purple haired woman had asked him. She lowered her stance, gripped her scimitar with her right hand. Then, with a ludicrous speed, she spun five times, performing which probably was the AoE skill with the biggest range of the game, 'Dancing Hellraiser'. It only took the wasps one of those five hits to die. An amazed Kirito looked at the dark elf while she sheathed her scimitar.

"Seriously, I can't understand why you all get so terrified even when everything follows the plan."

"Plan?! Which plan?! You didn't say a word, Kizmel!"

The dark elf faces him with a surprised expression, and the rubbed her head.

"Oh, is that so?"

"Yes it is!"

"Well, well, Kirito. We killed those wasps. Should we go back to town?"

The black haired boy, with fear still running through his body, nodded his head and started walking while silent, but soon the curiosity was too strong to resist. Even if her plans were sometimes risky, they had always proved worth a try. The idea for the fight in the third floor, the one that Asuna had given, having been praised as a incredibly good one by the raid team and Argo herself after it, had been Kizmel's.

"How did you know your strategy would work?"

As usual after a fight, Kizmel silently walked forward. When she acted that way, no one could expect her to say a word. She didn't talk much to begin with, and after every fight there was some kind of sadness that Kirito couldn't really explain.

"Trapper."

"Huh?"

"Someone I knew not so long ago was an expert trapper. She taught me a lot about monsters and how to counter them. I… I haven't seen her for a good while. I remember telling you about my sister before."

Kirito knew more than well what his friend was talking about. Almost two months before the front line arrived at the third floor, Kizmel's sister, a dark eld named Tilnell, had gone in a scout mission and had been ambushed, resulting on his death. Normally Kirito wouldn't have cared the slightest, but his own personal circumstances, along with how naturally Kizmel was, really made him feel bad. The night after Kizmel told him about Tilnell had been a really fucked up one.

"But how did you know this area had those kind of monsters around?"

Kirito was now really interested in how the dark elf had got the info. True, she slept in a the inn, but she never ever had spoken to anyone other than the raid team, and even them had been suspicious. Both him and Asuna were afraid of how the rest of the players would react, so Kizmel usually walked right next to the two without speaking.

"How do you know that, Kizmel?"

"Obviously by spying, this cloak helps. Sometimes I follow people until the stop to speak. If I feel like it, I sometimes grab some food from them."

"Spying?"

"True, I dont remind myself telling you about this. Before I was a knight, I was part of the scout team. Our job was mainly gathering intel and reporting to the main office. In fact, I have been a knight for only two months due to, let's say, difficult matters."

He remembered her talking about her sister. One night, they had found her sitting on the floor as if she had been praying, but she had been interrupted by a sudden monster attack. When they had tried to ask her, she just managed to escape everytime, but in the end she told them.

"But other than gathering intel, our job was infiltrating into the forest elfs quarters to discover their plans."

"So that is why you know how and who to spy, huh?"

Kirito took a little bottle of water and started drinking while Kizmel continued.

"Yes, but sometimes the reactions of the people really surprise me. I think the most surprised expression I have seen was the one on Asuna's face when my invisibility wore out while she was having a 'shower'."

Despite all the efforts that Kirito made to keep the water inside his mouth, Kirito spit it all out, mainly because the feeling simulation in SAO was quite overkill.

"You WHAT?!"

"I was curious to see how humans had showers. In Lyusula, we only have baths, no showers. But anyways, your people get really embarrassed when dealing with such situations."

The black haired boy had to pour water on his head to cool it out. Thankfully, it was dark in the night, so the dark elf couldn't see the heavy blush he had, caused by the only thought of her chestnut-haired girl having a shower completely naked. He did not realise that he didn't know how she would get naked.

"You totally remind me of Argo. Listen, Kizmel. I don't know how things worked in Lyusula, but for humans, looking at them while they have little clothes is rather….. Impolite."

The dark elf once again looked to the cloudy sky, fixing her eyes on the moon, that had just become visible.

"Then I shall not do so again. During my period with you, I have to abide human rules and not use my cloak. Which reminds me of something, Kirito."

The dark elf opened her inventory window, which Kirito had shown how to use, and tapped a few times on an item. It soon materialised, revealing itself to be a dark purple, large piece of silk.

"Kizmel, is this…?"

"Yes, Kirito. What you see here is a Mistmoon Cloak, but no a regular Cloak, this is Tilnell's. And I want you to have it."

Kirito took a few seconds to process the words of his NPC friend has said. She was strong enough to endure the pain of losing someone loved, yet she wanted to give her own and only memory of her to someone else.

"I- I can't accept it, Kizmel. Not only it is too much for me, but surprise attacks are not my thing."

"There is almost no one else I could give this too. The only people I trust enough are you and Asuna, but this colour really doesn't fit Asuna."

"What about Argo?"

Now it was Kizmel's turn to stop to think. Argo, the human 'info broker', that had the same job Kizmel had had before being a knight. The rumors said that she would even sell her friends for a good amount, but she had been rather discrete. Plus, her kingdom wouldn't have been saved without her guidance, and neither Kirito nor Asuna would have ever met Kizmel. Kizmel didn't know much about her, but if she stopped to think about it, she owed Argo as much as she owed Kirito and Asuna.

"Yes, I think Argo would be a good owner for the mistmoon cloak. I shall give it to her whenever I see her. We should be going, nobody know when Asuna might wake."

Meanwhile, a whiskered girl, all the way down in the third floor, sneezed in confusion.

After that talk, the two walked towards the lights that could be seen in the distance. When Kirito and Kizmel were about to enter the town, she stopped him.

"Kirito, would you say that today's hunting session was successful?"

"Yeah, pretty much it."

"Then wouldn't this be a good moment to do that thing with the hands? How did you call it?"

For a second, the black haired boy didn't understand, but then he remembered one of their first fights together.

"Ah, you mean a High-five! Sure, why not?"

The black haired boy turned around to face the purple haired elf. They both moved their hands together, and clapped them.

"Good job, Kizmel."

"Good job, Kirito."

 **00:57 December 30th Marome Village Floor 3 Aincrad**

Seriously, I really want the eighth floor to arrive. The whiskered girl carefully put her glass of milk on the table, despite not caring if it fell to the ground. The fine for the info regarding the boss fight would be enough for her to buy almost a thousand glasses of milk, or pay for almost two months of inn rooms. The usual price was 30000 col, and the front liners would buy. After all, nobody wanted to die due to misinformation. Plus, that wasnt the biggest percentage of her income, which came from her usual info selling to smaller parties.

A big man entered the little coffee shop. She recognised him in an instant. Heavy, strong mail, a club hanging from his waist, blue eyes and blond, short hair. Along with the black tank, Agil, who was a usual customer of Argo's, that man the strongest tank in the clearer team, and he had a fame comparable to that of Kirito and Asuna.

"Hello, young lady. I was starting to think you wouldn't show up."

From his smile, nobody could tell he was a fierce warrior that could fight on his own. However, Argo had seen him block an attack from a 5 meter high cow by his own. Had wasn't someone you wanted to make angry.

"Ya should know by now. If there is money behind, I'll be there, Walker-san."

He was one of the few people she spoke to using their name. Not even Kirito and Asuna had that effect. Walker sat down and ordered a bottle of water.

"So, this time it will be the same as usual?"

He dropped a big bag of coins in front of the info broker, whose eyes shone at the sight of such a bounty. She picked up the heavy thing and threw it into her inventory. Then, she took a little book from it and gave it to the man, who carefully read it.

"Hmm. 'The Death Singer'. Low HP and defense, but high damage output. Looks like I am on the front again."

"Yeah, ya get the boss for yerself."

"I was wondering what will you do when we get past the eighth floor. The beta arrived there, am I right?"

"We did, but I've been doin' as if I knew nothin'. Ya don't have to worry, I won't fail again."

Arfo frowned. Remembering how her stupid fail over the first boss fight almost killed a friend, one of the only ones that didn't treat her like a criminal in that world, was not something she found pleasant remembering.

"And why don't you stick to your friends?"

That was another thing she didn't like to talk about.

"You know better than any other."

The tall man seemed to concentrate on the whiskered girl. For Argo, he looked like someone who had seen a lot of things, someone from who even someone like her could always expect to learn something.

"What I really don't understand is why you do all this. You don't look any older than fifteen, and yet you assume two of the most dangerous jobs in this world, info broker and leader of the scout team. I get it must be well paid, but still…"

"It is well paid. Right now, I don't earn as much as I would want to, but info nets take a good time to grow. The value of a col is similar to the one of a yen. When we get to the middle of this castle I expect to earn the equivalent of a middle salary in Japan. Now, if ya don't have anythin' else to ask…"

"I have a little info about one of yours friends, I think she is called Rain."

The info broker, who was now standing, faced the man sitting in the table. She could have expected everything, except from him selling info about a friend of hers.

She sat down.

"How much?"

"500 col."

"Deal."

"So, about an hour ago, I got a message from her. So did not say much, just asked how she could join the clearing.group as a solo player. She said she had promised someone she would join the clear team."

Probably Akino. She has something for that girl. The fact that Rain wanted to join the boss fights didn't surprise Argo, she had been there since the very beginning after all, but the only thing that could make her take that step was a request from the little girl. Suddenly, a thought came through her mind.

"Changing the topic, have you heard of, let's say, NPCs that act too humanly?"

The man looked at him with curiosity.

"Not really. The only one I could remember fitting that would be that dark elf NPC your friends met in the third floor."

Kizmel. Argo hadn't talked much to her, but she did act to human, at least compared to others.

"I see. Well, I still have business to mind."

"Want me to do something with that girl?"

"Don't enroll her in your guild, just help her a bit."

"Ok, good night, young lady."

"See ya."

 **01:02 December 30th. Hospital. Saitama, Tokio Japan.**

"Sugu, wake up!"

The sleepy girl woke up. She looked up and saw her mother, Kirigaya Midori, standing next to the bed. And in the bed, the already terrifyingly skinny body of her brother.

She didn't need to check her face to see her red eyes. Every Time she saw him like that, she cried. It was just too much for her to endure. Thankfully, her mother was there for her.

"Another hard night, huh?"

"Every night is."

The mother sat down next to the girl. Kirigaya Suguha, a kendo prodigy and the younger sister of Kirigaya Kazuto, AKA Kirito. As every good sister, she deeply loved his brother. When she heard about how people were dying in the game, she almost had a heart attack. She had been there when the ambulance took him to the hospital, grabbing his hand, and again every day when school finished. She didn't mind the fifteen kilometers of cycling at all.

"Come one, Sugu, you know he wouldnt like you to cry over him."

"I DONT!"

The sudden change in tone of her daughter surprised the woman. She was a girl that hardly ever shouted, so this was a first time.

"For the last four years, he has been a stranger! I know nothing about him now! No even if he likes me anymore! Everyday I go to bed thinking what I did wrong to him!"

"I-I have an answer for that, Sugu."

"What do you mean?"

"Look, I know this will be hard to endure, but you deserve to know this."

The woman took the hand of her daughter, which she was using to cover her face. When Sugu looked into her eyes, she didn't see the usually confident woman her mother was. In its place she saw fear, nervousness and pain.

"Sugu, you and Kazuto are not real siblings"

 **Well, I made this. I want to apologise in advance if any of the characters, mainly Kizmel, are a little bit OOC, haven't read progressive yet. As for the rest, if you liked it, congratulations! I shall give you a freshly made Asuna sandwich! *hands you an Asuna sandwich* and if you didn't, well, then it is my fault. *hands you a sandwich anyway*** **So, that's it. I know it took long, but I'm doing my best here. Any constructive review will be appreciated**


	5. Chapter 5: The Blue and Brown Rogues

12:02 December 31st Mananarena, Floor 5 Aincrad.

The black-haired boy, was, before a beater or anything else, a boy. Thus, he had always thought that having a beautiful girl around him would be, even if impossible, something pleasant. However, when he looked at the girl that was grabbing his arm, he thought why he had to bear such a burden.

"Huh, Asuna? We are in town, you know? Besides, if you have your silver rapier, you will be fine."

The girl looked up at Kirito's eyes, with both tears in her eyes and a pouty face. If she hadn't been terrified by the monsters in that floor, she would have probably beaten him to a pulp. He was somehow glad she was afraid of spirits.

"But Kirito-kun, I can't help it! These things scare me too much!"

"I know, really. This is like the thousandth time you tell me, but could you at least let my arm go? If Argo gets to know this, we will never be able to enter a town without anyone laughing at us."

"Argo-chan would never sell that!"

The black haired boy made a disgusted frown while recalling his beta times. At those times, no matter who asked and what he asked, Argo would find out. She even sold the colour of girls' underwear if she got to know.

"Clearly you don't know her as much as I do. Anyways, if you don't mind Argo, think about Kizmel. She gets pretty curious about how humans interact and…."

"Indeed, I am curious right now."

"Whoaaa!"

"KYAAAAAA!"

The couple of clearers jumped, one in surprise and the other in terror. When they got to turn around to face their foe, there was a woman, clad in dark armor with a dark purple cloak. Her face was covered with a hood. Thankfully enough, Kirito's senses were sharp enough.

"Kizmel, I told you not to use your cloak!"

"I am not using it. You know its effect vanishes with daylight. You told me not to use it unless it was strictly necessary."

The sight of her dark elf friend seemed to calm Asuna down a bit. She pouted and yelled at her, bear-hugging the dark elf.

"God, dont do that, Kizmel-chan!"

The dark elf had both a calm and surprised expression.

"Do what? I believe I didn't do anything incorrect this time."

"Lesson two about human world, Kizmel. Most humans find surprises unpleasant. We don't have that kind of cloaks in our world."

The woman rubbed her head, seemingly confused. For her, the human world had a depth she could have never expected.

"Your human culture never ceases to impress me."

"Anyways, why are you here? We told you to wait for us until the boss fight is over."

"I have two reasons, Kirito, and you know the first one. As for the second, I got a message from Her Majesty, The Queen of Lyusula. She asked me to be faithful to my duties as a Pagoda knight and provide you with my help against the fearsome foe inside that place you call 'Labyrinth Tower', the Pilar."

That revelation was a surprise to both clearers. To start with, they didn't know how the queen of the dark elves, who never got out of the castle, would have known Kizmel's status and her actions. Then, Kirito was surprised because he didn't think that the queen, a NPC with basic programmation, would have taken that decision, but he wasn't going to reject the help.

"Anyways, it isn't time for hesitate. We need to go to the tavern to meet Argo-chan"

"Let's go then."

12:07 December 31st Mananarena Floor 5 Aincrad

To be honest, not many things scared Rain at her age. The things that troubled girls her age in Japan were studies, boys and not to get too attached to any otaku. For her, it was the technical maintenance of her weapon, the money for an inn room and not being too reckless when fighting new mobs. She considered that she deserved something nice, and if you took away the raid meeting, that shop's hot chocolate was her favourite.

"One hot chocolate? That will be 100 cor."

The price has increased crazily. This wouldn't cost more than 5 cor at most in the first floor. The brown haired girl sat in a table, calmly waiting for her mug to arrive. She started to think about the boss. This was going to be the first fight she would actively take part in, and that made her somehow nervous. The day before she had spent extra time on the labyrinth, working to get her level up to 16.

The mug, filled with hot, sweet chocolate, eventually arrived. She would have been alone. The group of five players had been shouting and celebrating since she had entered the shop. They were probably clearers, getting some fun before the fight. Everyone knew the next boss might be the last. A hooded person walked into the bar and stood next to the door, seemingly waiting for something.

"Well, guys, I guess the Furinkazan guild will be leaving! We won't fight this time, but soon, we will be part of the clear team!"

"Oh, c'mon Klein!"

"Hey, I said no! Who is the leader here?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say. Let's go, we have a quest to do."

The little guild, surprisingly clad in japanese like gear, rushed out of the shop. The leader didn't look like someone too serious, but at least they were happy. It is a relief to see that there are still people who can be like that.

The hooded shape approached the counter and ordered something that Rain didn't get to hear. To be completely fair, she wasn't really listening or paying attention, but the hooded person walked towards her and sat down.

"Damn, this floor's milk ain't as good as back in floor two."

The sword user looked up to the mysterious person's face, where she saw two witty eyes, a grin and six whiskers.

"Argo?!"

"Ssssh! Why do ya think I waited until those samurai wannabes were out?"

The brown haired girl wanted to give the info broker a bear hug, but she could tell by her previous reactions that hugs weren't a thing she particularly enjoyed, so she forced herself to remain sitting.

"How long has it been? A month?"

"Yep, more or less."

"You should come by sometimes. Akino really misses you."

Rain noticed the uneasiness that Argo had shown the last time. Maybe the sword user didn't know why, but the fact that the little girl addressed her as a sister seemed to bother her in some way.

"Maybe one day. How is Aki-chan doing?"

"Quite good. Two days ago she saw me polishing my sword and told me she wanted to be like me someday."

All that was said with a smile in Rain's face. The info broker couldn't help it but to smile too. If she stopped to think about it, that was her first smile in a week. She looked at the sword hanging Rain's waist.

"Yer still usin' that?"

The sword user looked at her waist and took out her sword. Anneal blade 6 3S3A.

"Oh, the anneal blade? Yeah, I haven't found a reliable replacement just yet. It is getting useless now. Town shop swords don't reach its level and they are expensive. I failed one enhancement, and right now it is really weak against monsters, it does no damage."

The anneal blade was, in fact, a great weapon, until floor three. Kirito had broken his defending Yofel. It could be enhanced up to eight times. The quest to get it had been taken by almost a hundred people, but only forty at most had got the sword.

"Do you know where I could find something better, Argo?"

The info broker took out a book without any words in the cover, but the info broker knew everything listed in there. It was a list she had made the very first day in the death game, some of them with the help of Kirito and Diavel. She glanced through the book for a moment and finally stopped in a page.

"Got it. That'll be 900 cor."

"Deal."

"I like people like ya, who don't bargain. Okay, to the east of the first village of the sixth floor, there is an old man who asks for the players to get his treasure back. Ya have to face a group of demons and give the package to him. Simple as that."

"I see."

"Aaaand, as a proud info broker, I have more info that might be interestin' fer ya."

"How much?"

"1000."

"I am paying for your living today, Argo."

The grin on the info broker's face made her look younger than she actually was. Maybe, given other circumstances, she would have been someone Rain would have hugged like a pillow, but then she remembered her cutting down that man's fingers. Better not.

"You bet! Remember what ya told me to investigate? Looks like a lil' someone has found a NPC that is pretty natural in what she does."

The interest grew in the sword user's head. It was true that she had asked the info broker to look for that kind of NPCs, but, to be honest, she never expected a reply of any kind.

"So, how is he?"

"She, Re-chan. She ain't human, but a woman elf NPC. I'm sure you remember her from the third floor boss fight."

An elf in the third bossfight? Rain struggled to remember. The third boss was the one she remember the least, since she had almost left before someone noticed. She focused on any special someone being there.

"Ah, the extremely tan woman with purple hair?"

"Yeah."

"But if my memory doesn't fail me, she was partying with…."

"Yup, Kii-bou and Aa-chan, who are goin' to enter this shop in three, two, one."

The whiskered girl pointed at the door in the exact moment it opened. From outside, three people came in. A black-haired boy, a chestnut-haired girl and a purple-haired woman, who also had pointy ears. Two of them noticed the couple at the moment, but the woman seemed to be quite lost. She glanced through the shop, but when her eyes met the info broker she seemed to calm a bit.

The three calmly walked towards the table, and were surprised when they saw Argo's partner.

"Rain-chan? What are you doing here?"

The sword user gave her an awkward smile. Her plan was to 'surprise' them in the boss fight, but given the circumstances, she decided to clarify everything.

"It is a long story. I was thinking about joining the front line for a while."

"Huh? What made you think of joining the front line, Rain-chan?"

"Someone asked me to, so…"

The chestnut haired girl looked at the brown haired one in confusion, but she soon changed the matter.

"Oh, true! Introducing! Rain-chan, this is Kizmel, a Pagoda knight of the Lyusula Kingdom."

Of course, the only word Rain understood was 'knight'. She had been to the third floor and so, but she never took the elf war quest. At that time she was more worried about how she would pay for her sword upgrades.

The dark knight have her a confused look, and talked soon after.

"Ah, I see. You are the Swordmaster that was hiding back in the third floor. The pleasure is mine. Kirito and Asuna's friends are my friends."

Rain didn't know how to take that. She didn't remember anyone following her in the labyrinth, let alone someone that peculiar.

"Y-Yeah, that was me, but how….?"

"Don't feel bad, Rain, Kizmel has the sharpest senses I have seen. She saw through my hiding skill more than once."

"Oi."

The strange voice, with its usual nasal sound, came from a face showing slight annoyance.

"Seriously, it was ME who asked ya ta come, and yet ya ignore me?"

Kirito, as the only one who knew the info broker from before, gulped visibly. Asuna, being Asuna, just smiled at the info broker.

"Ah, it's been long! I wanted to talk to a girl already! Kizmel-chan is not used to human topics, and this guy here…" she made an annoyed grin "...is just as clueless as usual"

The black-haired boy put his hand on the table.

"Asuna, so that is what you think of me? Besides, you came to Argo? I really can't see her talking like…"

Before he was able to finish that sentence, a fork flew towards the boy's hand. Maybe it wouldn't pierce, but it was enough to scare everyone in the room and to make Kirito retreat. Once again, the whiskered girl had that sinister smile of hers on.

"Kii-bou, I told ya to measure yer words. I am a girl too, ya know? Maybe ya want people to know how ya two met. I imagine what Kibaou or Lind would react if they heard of your and Aa-chan's little bath tale?"

Both the black-haired boy and the chestnut-haired girl blushed bright red.

"That is what I thought."

"I am curious on what happened, Argo. How much?"

"500."

"W-Wait, Argo-chan, you can't sell that! I won't be able to get married!"

The silence invaded the room while the black haired boy facepalmed.

"Now I am really curious."

"So am I. That story is before we met in the third floor."

"Everything at its time, Kii-chan, Re-chan."

The dark elf seemed to remember something, because she opened her NPC inventory and materialised an item. A piece of purple silk appeared in front of the five people. Asuna, who had been sleeping like a baby the night before, didn't know of Kizmel's plan, so her eyes widened.

"Kizmel-chan, is that a Mistmoon cloak? What are you going to do with it?"

"Woah, a Mistmoon cloak! That item is literally impossible for a player to have, only belongs to dark elfs."

"Players?"

Kizmel sank in confusion as she used to do when she came across gaming speech. Being a NPC did not grant you the knowledge of you being a NPC.

"A human, that is. It's just a different way to name them, Kii-chan."

"Anyways, I wanted to give this to Kirito, as a personal reward for saving us, but he said that invisibility wasnt his way of fighting, I can understand that. So when I thought of someone using a surprise attack pattern, or someone who would need to run away soon, I thought of you, Argo."

"That is pretty nice of ya, Kii-chan, but I thought yer knighthood only granted ya one coat."

"True, this one is my sister's"

The whiskered girl frowned in confusion. She wasn't used not to know everything that happened around her. She faced Kirito with a slightly annoyed expression.

"Kii-bou, ya hidin' somethin' from Argo-oneesan?"

The face of the black haired boy broke into a sorrowful grin.

"That is personal to her. I can't tell you, no matter how much you pay me."

"Don't worry, Kirito. She would end up finding out anyways. She is the best swordmaster information broker in this world."

"So, storytime, Kii-chan?"

"Yes, I believe so."

12:25 December 31st Mananarena. Floor 5. Aincrad

The feeling simulator was one of the things Kayaba had messed up at, along with liquids. It only took a little sadness to bring you to tears, a little happiness to make you smile like crazy, and a little annoyance or embarrassment to make your ears steamy. Right now, the group were in a serious danger of drowning in Rain's and Asuna's tears.

"S-So sad…"

"I didn't remember the whole story, Kizmel-chan."

Kirito was sitting with his head down. What is Sugu doing now? If I someday get back there, I will try my best to at least be by her side.

But the most surprising reaction was Argo's. She hid deep in her hood just when Kizmel had started to mention her sister. Once she came out to the world again, she tried her usual grin, but she only managed an expression filled with anger, guilt and sorrow. He could easily recognise a face like that. She saw it every day when he looked at a mirror. Anger, directed towards himself, guilt for what he had done to his family, and sorrow, realising how much time he had lost. What? I have never seen her like this. Could it be…?

For the first time, the info broker had a completely serious tone.

"Kizmel, are ya sure ya want ta give me this? It is pretty much the only memorial you have of Tilnell."

The entire room's atmosphere changed with Argo's mood. Noone of the group of four people could tell if she was angry, sad, or anything.

"Yes. I think that giving it to someone will help me get over it. I have everything she taught me through the years."

"I'll wear it with pride, Kizmel. Ah, Kirito, there is no point in runnin' to the meetin', the boss will not spawn until twilight."

The black-haired boy didn't know what was more surprising, the fact that to boss was timed, or the fact that the info broker had talked to him as Kirito. She had not used anything different to Kii-bou or Kiri-bou. She had also done so with Kizmel, who she called Kii-chan. Is she ok?

The rapier-wielder and the sword-wielder seemed to think the same, because both of them stood to ask something, but the whiskered girl didn't give them the chance. With her usual grin, she stood and talked to everybody.

"Ok, c'mon! I need ta tell the clearers this. They paid for the info after all."

That said, and with an uncomfortable mood, five warriors and an info broker walked out of the bar. The meeting was about to start, so they fastened their pace until they arrived at the plaza. The four lost Argo in the crowd.

"Oh, look who is late again. Our favourite beater."

That voice was without a doubt Kibaou's. Not a lot of people, even if most hated him, actually said it in the face. Behind him, the Aincrad Liberation Squad stood, with the second in charge, Walker, who walked towards the group.

"I see you finally made your decision."

Then, he walked to the 'stage', which wasn't more than a slightly higher slab, and spoke to the raid team.

"Before we start, I want to introduce a new member for the raid team. She is a sword user. Name's Rain, be sure to welcome her."

He was smiling, but anyone who had been to the second floor field boss fight knew how fast his mood could change. Kibaou scratched his neck and approached the stage.

"This time, I will be the leader of the raid. We know pretty much everything about it. 'The Death Singer', a scythe-wielding boss. It has low HP and defense, but a ridiculously high damage output, two hits will get you to red. His patterns are basic swings and a spinning attack. This time he doesn't have any help. This time, given the threat, the tanks will go back to heal after every hit taken. Now, the info broker wants to explain something."

He said those last words with a little bit of hatred behind them. He hadn't liked her since the beginning, but when he discovered she was a beta tester, well… the same as Kirito. The whiskered girl came up from the stage and talked.

"First, I want ya ta know that this is the third time a boss changes since the beta. It used to be a golem, but now it isn't. Second, and more important, the quest I took yesterday revealed that the boss spawns at twilight."

The entire raid group was surrounded by confused gazes and murmurs. It was something certainly new, that a boss spawned at a certain hour in the day. Kirito looked at the plaza. The players were as confused as he had been when Argo told him. He looked back and saw Rain talking to Walker about where she was going to.be placed, but Asuna narrowed her eyes, and pointed at some place.

"There, Kirito-kun."

"What?"

"Those two NPCs in that group are looking at the raid team."

Kirito followed the point of his finger and discovered that, effectively, there were to NPCs that were looking at the players. Both of them had long cloaks, one blue and other brown, seemingly more luxurious, but completely worn out. When they made eye contact, the two NPCs walked away.

"Who are they?"

"Let them be, Asuna. Just generic NPCs."

Kirito couldn't say that he was uninterested. Two NPCs, supposedly unable to make their own choices, were looking at the clearers. But even if he wanted to know more, deciding what to do with the raid team was more important. Fortunately, the cactus-like man took responsibility as the leader.

"Well, I guess we have the day off. We will meet here one hour before twilight. Walker, lets go!"

The club-and-shield wielder followed his boss, not without a disgusted face. He said goodbye to Rain and followed the Aincrad Liberation Squad through the teleport gate.

Diavel, with the also blue haired Lind at his side, commanded his own guild, the DDA.

"Guys, twilight arrives at nine o'clock. Let's get some last moment upgrades and level! For victory's sake!"

The blue-haired self-called knight certainly knew how to motivate the troop. The ten players under his command shouted. With a smile, the commander of the DDA went through the teleport gate, followed by his second in command and his guild.

That left the group of four warriors thinking what to do in the following nine hours. Argo had vanished from reality, and knowing her, everyone in the group figured out she had gone to some dark dungeon to check her brand new cloak. It was Asuna who broke the silence.

"So, I don't have anything to do, and I believe Kirito-kun doesn't have either."

"Going back to Yofel won't be worth the time. I also believe there is nothing of interest to do there."

The three turned around to face the brown-haired girl, who felt suddenly overwhelmed by all the attention directed to her.

"Do you have anything special to do, Rain-chan?"

Rain answered with an awkward smile.

"Kirito, Asuna, can we talk alone for a second? Sorry, Kizmel-san, human matters and so…"

"Do not worry, human Swordmaster matters must be dealt with by human Swordmasters."

That said, the three 'human Swordmasters' walked away and sat on a bench. The dark elf stood in the middle for a while, but soon sat down on another bench.

"What is it, Rain-chan?"

"To be completely honest, don't you think that Kizmel-san, who was supposed to be nothing more than a NPC, behaves way too…. human?"

The brown haired girl expected some kind of surprise in her friends faces, but all she got was a couple of worried looks facing each other. The one who continued was the black haired boy.

"A lot of people had told us already. What do you want to do?"

"R-Remember when I told you someone had asked me to become a clearer?"

"Yes."

"Well, she is kind of a NPC too."

Now Rain got the surprise she had expected from her first question. Asuna's eyes widened, and Kirito scratched his head. He knew how advanced the AI was at that moment, and that was why it bugged him that much.

"And I wanted to introduce you. She is really excited about meeting the 'Beater'"

Both Kirito and Asuna seemed to silently discuss whether they should go or not. Fortunately, Asuna's death stare won the mental battle, because she stood up.

"We agree on this, Rain-chan. We will go and meet that girl."

"Yeah, but can we bring Kizmel along? I dont feel comfortable leaving her behind."

"Yes, I dont see any problem."

"Let's go then. Kizmel, we are going to the first floor!"

13:10 December 31st Horunka Village Floor 1 Aincrad

"So this is the place where your world's magic transported you when you came to this world."

"Y-Yes, Kizmel. We came here and started to wander around town, but soon the ruler of this world managed us all in the main plaza."

Kirito and Asuna had been both forced to make up some partial lies to tell Kizmel. After all, how could you tell a dark elf, whose technologies didn't go much further than blacksmithing and basic engineering, what a videogame was?

"And have you had more news about that ruler so far?"

"No, Kizmel-chan. That bastard hasn't shown up yet."

If Asuna usually had a not-so-cheerful mood when around Kirito (that didn't include the fifth floor, she needed to hug and grab someone's arm to keep her cool, and with Kizmel not used to physical contact, the only option was Kirito, to the black-haired boy's dismay), when talking about their kidnapper, she had a darker gaze, the same she had when Kirito first met her in the first floor labyrinth. If only I hadn't touched that damn thing...

"I see too many variability between humans. Even forest elfs wouldn't run away from their sins. With all my respect, some humans behave in coward ways."

"I can't deny that."

Since the very second day, his - towards his family had been hunting Kirito down like a wolf. Even if he only talked to her when it was strictly necessary, she always, every single day, knocked his door to wake him in time to go to school. When he woke up two hours late he discovered two things. One, that he for sure liked sleeping, and two, that he was alone. He had done the secret promise with himself of not letting one single day pass without thinking about his family. That was the least they deserved.

Wiping those thought from his mind, and looking at how Asuna seemed to be darkening the air itself around her, the boy decided to change the subject of the conversation. Looking in front of him, he saw Rain calmly walking towards a bakery.

"Hey, Rain, what are you doing?"

The brown haired girl, who was deeply thinking about all the cakes in front of her, turned around.

"Oh, I am looking for some cake to give to Akino. She told me she wanted some of this but couldn't buy it, so…"

"Cake?"

Both Asuna and Kizmel made her 'Oh,no' faces. Before the confused girl could ask, Kirito himselfd answered, his eyes shining when he threw himself at the shop.

"So, what do we have here? Chocolate and cheesecakes? Oh, wait…."

"W-What?"

"We should have warned you, Rain-chan. Kirito gets too carried away when food is on the table."

"I remember when he gave the cooks in our camp problems with the amount of cooked food."

"Strawberry, cookies. Oh, brownies!"

"I-Is this normal?"

"Certainly it is, Rain. I believe he will be done in five minutes."

Twenty minutes and thirteen pieces of bakery later(yes, thirteen), the group arrived at the small house in the town end. The black-haired boy, still eating cake, frowed, clearly remembering the place where the Anneal blade sword used to start.

"Are you shure thish ish where that girl livesh?"

"Yes, pretty sure, I sleep here every night."

The brown haired girl knocked the door, not without having to hold back a laughter.

"Marie-san, its me, Rain."

The door in front of the group opened, and a woman in his forties welcomed the brown haired girl.

"Ah, Rain-chan! I was wondering if you would come to eat with us."

"Who is it, Okaasan?"

The voice of the little girl came from inside the house, and soon after Akino crossed the door, smiling when she saw Rain.

"Oneechan! Are you going to eat with us today?"

"Sorry, but I kinda agreed to eat with them. By the way, here are the brownies you wanted."

"You are the best!"

The little girl seemed to finally notice the ones by Rain's side.

"Who are they?"

"Why don't you take a closer look?"

The blonde little girl glanced through both players and the dark elf, paying special attention to their clothes and weapons. Soon after, she let out the most fangirl-like shout any of the present people had ever heard.

"Y-You are the black swordsman, Kirito! And you must be his companion, Asuna!"

Kirito's face twisted into a complicated, expression and Asuna frowned, probably not liking to be called Kirito's sidekick. Then she faced the dark elf in confusion.

"I don't know who you are, but you are cool too! Come, I want to show you something!"

Two surprised clearers were grabbed into the house by Akino, while Kizmel and Rain calmly walked into the house.

"So, is that girl a sister of yours? In all the time I have been with Kirito and Asuna, I have noticed that people use words like 'oneechan' not only to talk about their siblings."

"Huh? Not really. She just started calling me so when I finished the quest to get my sword."

"I see. Where did Kirito and Asuna go?"

"Knowing that girl, they are probably in her room."

The two followed Rain's lead until they reached an opened door. In the room, Kirito and Asuna remained speechless in front of a mountain of papers with drawings of the couple on them, next to the bed. Asuna picked up one of them, in which she seemed to be fighting some kind of bull. She faced the little girl with a smile.

"What is your name?"

"Akino!"

"That is a beautiful name! I was wondering, you sure draw wonderfully well, but how do you know how we look like, or which monsters we fight?"

"Argo-oneechan told me! She came to have lunch a week ago."

"Oh, did she?"

Meanwhile, Kirito was looking through all the drawings. He hadn't made a single one for at least six years, when he drew kendo-related stuff and fantasy monsters. Suddenly, a breath of wind came through the window and sent a paper flying. Having unnatural reflexes, Kirito moved his hand to catch it, and gave it a look. It took two seconds for his face to shot red.

"Ahhh!"

The chestnut-haired girl turned around.

"What is it, Kirito-kun?"

The black haired boy didn't seem willing to share the content of the paper, because he pressed it against his chest.

"N-Nothing, absolutely nothing! Just a normal drawing!"

"You are acting weird, you know?"

"Huh, what do you mean?! I am as normal as usual!"

"You are not normal usually, Kirito-kun. You are making me curious. What is in that paper?"

"N-Nothing."

"Show me that paper."

"No."

The atmosphere in the room had changed in merely twenty seconds. All of a sudden, Asuna jumped at Kirito.

"Let….me….see!"

"No!"

After thirty seconds or so of fighting over it, Asuna won the fight, and she sat on Kirito's back to look at her reward. Her reaction wasn't too different to Kirito's. Her face went crimson red.

"Kyaaa!"

"Asuna!? What happened?!"

"D-Dont look!"

She covered her face with her hands to hide her more than obvious blush. Maybe those two didn't always agree, but their next words were exactly the same.

"That info broker. I'm SO going to kill her."

Meanwhile, and while a certain whiskered girl sneezed when finishing a business, the paper, in which, even if childishly drawn, there was clearly a surprised Kirito looking at an also surprised Argo, who was standing next to a terrified Asuna with no more clothes than a towel, fell to the ground.

16:32 December 31st. Forest of wandering souls, Floor 5, Aincrad

"This plan of yours worked, Philia."

The blonde girl, who was enjoying her lunch in the forest, turned around to face her partner, and was glad he hadn't taken his hood off. She wasn't ready to see that face again.

"I can't understand what you mean when you say you are different to me."

"Apart from the fact that you are a skeleton and that? I am not from this world, it's kind of hard to explain."

Philia focused on giving her pudding all the possible attention. It was impossible for her to get that kind of food in a daily basis, so whenever she managed to get some, it was a huge event.

"That idea of going between those you call yellow entities worked just fine even if I don't see the 'yellow markers' you talk about."

"It did. I think some of the clearers, specifically that chestnut-haired girl, noticed us, but that won't matter after today"

"Are you sure you want to slow down your own goal like this, Philia?"

She was absolutely not sure if what she was going to do was right or not, but she was going to do it anyways.

"Of course I dont want to slow them, but it isn't like if I was going to kill anyone, and I need that drop more than anyone, you know it."

She wasn't lying. After carefully making sure that she wasn't a MPKer or something, the info broker from the last time had been willing to sell her the last drop from the boss. (She still havent managed to contact the famous Argo, so she had to rely on smaller ones). A shining one-handed sword.

"Yet you don't want to get it."

How does he know me that well? The treasure hunter rushed her last spoon of pudding and threw the rest into the bonfire. Then, throwing her swordbreaker dagger into her inventory, she took out both her swords. After checking her own mood and the mobs in the area, she put her curved sword into her inventory and hung her one-handed sword scabbard from her back. She stood.

"I need some practise with the sword."

"Two swords are better than one, I'm coming along."

"As you wish. Just don't kill all the mob…..monsters this time, okay?"

Also standing, the skeleton warrior put his sword, the same sword Philia had seen shining with that strange red light some time ago, in it scabbard.

"Let us go, then."

The two walked towards the part of the forest they knew was home to monsters. Philia tries to carefully think about their plan for the night, but, as always when she was near her partner, she couldn't just focus on something. The way he walked, like a old-time warrior, his swordplay, his way of talking, everything made her uncomfortable. It was not that Gokken wasn't a good person/NPC, in fact, he had behaved way better than any player, but that always gave her the creeps. And then, there was his physical appearance. Something cold went down the blonde girl's back. Remembering it was something rather…..unpleasant.

"What are you going to do with the sword you got the other day?"

The blonde girl tried to break the ice by talking about the quest they had taken the day before, which involved killing a queen bee, getting a one handed sword as a reward. She had asked him to keep it due to her plan. Taking the simple blade out of his back, where it lied next to his dragon sword, Gokken answered.

"You mean this one here? It is indeed a good weapon, but my sword is better in any way."

That sentence left Philia wondering how strong his weapon truly was. She had checked the new one, and it surpassed her own sword's stats by a fair amount. Her thoughts were stopped in place when she heard the flapping of wings. Some bats had just appeared near their position. Studying their number, Philia drew her weapon.

"Half mine, half yours."

"Got it."

22:58 December 31st Mananarena Floor 5 Aincrad.

"If we are all here, then we all know what we have to do. I will repeat just in case."

The man with the cactus-like hair, Kibaou, who had been 'elected' by coin flip to be the raid leader for the fifth floor, went through the same speech he had given almost eight hours ago to the clearers. Kirito and Asuna were given the task of attacking from the boss' back. Kizmel was, with Rain, put in the same group as Walker to switch with the tanks to deal damage as the raid team's DPS.

"Let's depart. We will achieve victory in no time!"

Obviously, 'no time' was an exaggeration. Given how slow they walked in the dark dungeon, how powerful some mobs were and the annoying amount of slow debuffs they had, it was being a really slow work. At some time,l between fight and fight, Rain and Kizmel approached Asuna and Kirito, who were bringing some 'Death Bats' down. The dark elf started to talk, her own sword still out and Asuna still in motion for a Linear.

"I still don't get what that drawing before meant. Why don't you want to explain it, Asuna?"

As someone would have expected, the question drew enough of Asuna's attention to make her Linear not strike in the mob's head, but in one of its wings.

"Kizmel-chan! Don't distract me while fighting!"

"I'm sorry. I still have to get used to what humans consider embarrassing. You are not going to tell me?"

Asuna quickly finished the bat before it could do any harm and turned around to hide her more than evident blush, while Kirito remained so focused that he hadn't even realised the dark elf was teasing his companion without even knowing. When he also ended his bat and turned around, only to find a confused dark elf looking at Asuna, and the chestnut-haired girl quickly looking away. What happened again?

All worries about what he could have done (he was sure Asuna was still mad because of the drawing) focused on Rain and her blade.

"Rain, I know you have been able to fight until now, but I don't think you should keep your anneal blade much more. It is already amazing it hasn't broken by now."

What Kiritp was saying was no lie. His own anneal blade had passed away defending Yofel castle in the fourth floor. Rain having her still being able to cut enemies demonstrated an insane luck or an insane amount of skill. Asuna had broken four rapiers by the time Kirito first met her, so a weapon breaking wasnt a strange thing. They had even met a blacksmith that used a trick to simulate a breaking weapon.

"I know, Argo told me too." The brown haired girl seemed a bit down because she had to throw away a partner that had helped her for almost a month. Kirito knew that feeling, Asuna had cried when she thought her 'Wind Fleuret' had broken, and she only had had it for less than a week. "Argo will sell me the location for the next sword quest in the next floor. I hope it pays off."

"You mean the 'Warrior's Will' sword? It is pretty good. In the beta….."

"Hey, you two!"

The black haired boy was interrupted mid-sentence by Asuna, who had completely wiped away her blush and awkwardness replacing it with her usual serious mood. Behind her, Kizmel was standing still, with her curved sword sheathed, showing that there were no more enemies. Asuna frowed.

"Now it no time to discuss about swords!"

"Asuna, it is still early in the night. The raid team is as slow as possible. We have time."

The chestnut-haired girl grabbed the gamer by an arm and pulled him. Almost being carried, Kirito tried to resist, but the 'death stare' his companion was giving him, comparable to that comic character, 'The Ghost Rider', made all his attempts to resist vanish.

"You made me join this. Take responsability! We cant be that far away."

Obviously, they were that far away.

Three entire hours was what it took the raid team to arrive at the boss room, and when it happened, everyone was mentally exhausted. Since most of the fighters requested a break, Kibaou gave the raid team fifteen minutes to lie down and relax a bit before the boss fight. After all, fighting a high damage boss without being completely aware of what you were doing could be fatal. Asuna was sitting next to the club-user from the ALS, Walker, discussing strategies, when Kirito arrived.

"We cant be that far, huh?"

"Screw you."

"Wow kids, you speak too badly for your age."

The smiling man openly invited Kirito to sit next to him, and the black-haired guy discovered that on the other side, Rain and Kizmel were sitting too, forming a circle side to side.

"Am I missing something?"

"Absolutely nothing, Kirito. I was discussing the strategies for the fight."

"Really?" Kirito was always up for a review of the known details, even more after the almost-disaster of the second floor, when only the perfect timing from Argo and Nezha had saved the raid team. "Mind if I join?"

"Why would I?"

The black-haired boy sat down next to Asuna. After five minutes of review, it was pretty clear that the strategy had been carefully planned, taking all the weaknesses of the boss into account, but not forgetting about its strenghts. All of the present could do nothing but praise who, they supposed, had planned it all.

"This is a great way of planning. I take my hat off at your work, Walker-san."

"Well, you arent wearing any hat at all, Asuna-san. Anyways, that is half true."

"What do you mean?"

"It wasnt only me who planned all this. It was me, Diavel and…"

"The good ol' me!"

Three teenagers and a dark elf jumped without really jumping when they heard the voice that came out if nowhere. It was only when an arm touched Asuna's arm and her owner became visible that the group realised who it was.

"So, how was Aki-chan doin', Re-chan?"

"I swear to god, Argo, you are going to give me a heart attack!"

"Ah, don sweat it, Aa-chan." A huge grin appeared in the girl's face. A hood, whiskers, a head or so shorter than Kirito. Argo had appeared next to them.

"I think I will regret my decision of giving you the Mistmoon cloak, Argo."

The grin in Argo's face faded as she pouted (first time any of her friends had seen her make so).

"Yer all a huge letdown. I came here bringin' great news and ya all tell me I am scary!"

"Well, not intentionally trying to scare us would really help."

"Shut up, Kii-bou."

"Lets get to the point. You said something about reinforcements this morning."

"You are in front of them, Kiddo"

The reaction was slow as expected. Other than the field boss in the second floor, she was known for not taking part in any major fight. Most thought it was because that fight had scared the shit out of her, some thought it was because she was a 'selfish beta tester'.

"W-wha..? You?"

"Yup."

While Kirito remained speechless, Asuna continued the babbling.

"B-But you are lower level."

"This time I just felt like droppin' around here to fight. Dont ya worry, I will play safe!"

Kirito, Asuna and Rain didnt know what to say or think. The info broker always carried

either her claws or her swordbreaker, but almost noone could boast of having seen her use them. When dealing with 'stubborn customers' she preferred to run away, even if she had actually cut some fingers off, Rain herself having witnessed said event.

"Are you sure….?"

"Oh c'mon! Who are ya, my mom? Go already! Sshhhussh!"

Four surprised clearers walked towards the boss room door while the info broker sat down next to the club-user.

"I really could use a nap right now, ya know?"

"We all could."

"It took almost three hours for ya to get through this labyrinth. I made it in one and a half. I think I deserve my nap more than most do."

The blonde man didn't answer for a good moment. He directly stared at the auburn eyes of the whiskered girl with his own blue ones.

"What?"

"I was thinking how a kid like you can mask her emotions this well."

Argo frowed. "There are things I still have to do."

"Check why things changed from the beta, I guess."

"Not really, I need to know WHICH things changed, not if they did. It's my job after all."

"But still, I don't get why you don't want to go with them. I know that they already have the black-haired kid, but with all my respect, his reputation can't go much worse unless he does something stupid like MPK."

"That wont happen." The thought of Kirito commiting MPK, or his 'older broder' PK stayed in Argo's head for a moment, but she soon put it away. Their relationship was based in pure and mutual trust, and some col here and there. And the info broker chose her aqquitances really carefully. "He might be dense, but he isn't like those pieces of shit of the MPKs."

"I can tell by how he drew all the hate from eight thousand people towards himself. We should be going, Kibaou is gathering the raid team together again."

The man was, in fact, shouting at the clearers to listen to a final review of the plan. The man made a special call to his second in command, which left Argo alone, but not for long since Kirito came to her side.

"Sup, Kii-bou?"

"Cut that grin, Argo, I know you are as worried as I am."

"So ya noticed, huh? Gotta give ya credit, I was trying hard to hide it."

Scratching his head, Kirito replied. "It was more like a supposition." His eyes looked towards the boss room in a serious expression, as if he wanted to kill whatever was behind it without putting anyone at risk. "If I am worried about beta changes, you, who work based almost completely on that knowledge, must be biting your nails off."

"It is annoying, not worrying. Anyways, when I check it, I mostly safe reckless betas that run around info-naked. Also, havin' as much intel as possible helps someone who lives by doin' so."

"With your prices…" The black-haired swordsman frowned hard enough to make Argo feel uncomfortable. "You could live a week by selling a single piece of info."

That was nothing but a huge truth. Not taking floor bosses intel into account, Argo sold at rather high prices, even when the customer was a level 1 newbie. The raid boss 30000 fine was divided between almost fourty members, so it wasnt as hard, but the 1500 cor for a single quest or piece of info were itchy, at least until upper floors. But Argo's info was always worth Argo's price.

"Money is yer friend, Kii-bou. I like money."

The expression of the beater went for one of concern to one of boredom. "Dont you say? You must be one of the wealthiest persons in this world." The black-haired boy suddenly remembered why he had approached the whiskered girl. "And just what do you think you are telling a ten-year old girl about me and Asuna?"

For a second, Argo looked at the black-haires boy without understanding, but when she saw his eyes, she realised. "Ya mean the little tale of me coming across Aa-chan in YER bathroom?"

"Yeah! She even made a drawing!"

"Woah, that girl is one o' mine!"

"I am being serious!"

To much of the unfortane boy's dismay, the info broker retuned to her usual grin.

"Info is info. I'll sell as long as there is someone to buy."

"For some reason, I highly doubt you would sell anything."

Once again, that was a big thruth. Argo had made herself the promise of never selling anything about beta testers, given how most people reacted at the mere mention of that title. Later, when the MPK arrived, she also promised not to sell anything that could lead to any kind of crime to someone else's life.

"Wanna know my size, Kii-bou? Or the color of Aa-chan underwear?"

The black-haired boy blushed violently and furiously. The emotion simulator was a little bit overkill inside the virtual world, seeing how literally steam was coming out of his ears while the info broker had to wipe the tears from her eyes.

"No! That's not what I meant. I dont want to know your size!"

"Oh, but you want to know Aa-chan's underwear color?"

"Oh, that." The black-haired boy seemed to calm down a bit, the lack of steam being a clear sympthom of that. "I kinda already know, so…"

It was at that moment that Kirito realised how huge his error had been. The eyes in the info broker's face widened as if they were trying to capture the maximum light possible.

"Kii-bou, is there somethin' you haven't told Argo-oneesan?"

"Wha….?!" Quickly realising his mistake, the black-haired boy waved his hands in front of him, sweat dripping from his face, courtesy of the emotion simulator. "Nothing, I won't say a word! My life is on the line here!"

The whiskered girl narrowed her eyes until they were nothing but thin lines. Her teasing smile on, she looked at the boss room door.

"Oh, look who's there, Aa-chan! Maybe she will answer some of my questions!"

Then, faithful to her fame as one of the fastest players in Aincrad, since she had invested every single point in AGI, Argo ran towards the group of players in front of the door, were Asuna, Rain and Kizmel were participating in a friendly talk with some clearers.

"ARGO!"

23:47 December 31st Fifth floor boss room. Floor 5 Aincrad

The boss fight had finally started at half past eleven, due to a big group of mobs spawning right before they were entering the room. They had spent almost ten minutes curing everyone from poison.

That was the first damage-based floor boss they had faced so far. However, with the scythe sword skills being those of a two-handed axe, its attacks were slow, so the first half of the fight had been tense as usual, but boring. Rain sighed more than once while dodging the painfully easy to read attacks. Thinking carefully, a boss weak in defense and with slow atacks made little sense. The real fight happened right at the end.

"Switch!"

That order given, Walker, the brown man Agil and other three tank members of the raid team jumped backwards, and while the boss was in post-motion after his skill, Rain, Kizmel and all the DPS players engaged to land as many blows as possible. To their right, Diavel and Lind released a Reaver sword skill in perfect unison. To their left, Kibaou, followed by his guild, was landing precise and powerful blows. Argo was going here and there, jumping around and launching random sword skills (or were them body skills?). The info broker's knowledge concerning plans went as far as making them. Following them was something different.

However, even with all that people fighting, the real show was the duo formed by Asuna and Kirito.

The black-haired boy and the chestnut-haired girl fighting affinity was beyond comparison. When one of them was about to say switch, the other was already in place to perform an attack. They had been told to attack the boss from behind, and they were doing as well as it was expected from the beater and his companion.

Once again, the tanks engaged again, with their high VIT stats and heavy armor, to literally take hits until the damage dealers were ready to engage again. Half of the raid team held the boss while half of it retreated to heal and buff. Checking for the top right part of her 'screen', Rain checked for her party members' HP.

The party for that raid had been modified due to Rain. Right now, Walker was in a party with her, along with Kirito, Asuna, Kizmel and Argo. Everyone's HP was now in the green again, and they had three minutes at most until the rest of the clearers requested them to engage again.

"Kirito, Asuna-san!"

"Oh, Rain-chan, how are you doing?"

The brown-haired girl ran towards the duo of fighters, with Kizmel following her closely.

"This foe is as rough as you told me, Asuna. Nothing I have seen before compares."

"It is, there have been some close calls, but it is almost done."

Somewhere near the boss, someone shouted.

"Half of last HP bar!"

All the following events happened really fast.

The boss, to everyone's surprise, was downed without an apparent reason. All the clearers looked at each other in slight confusion, since it had never happened before.

Nice, a good opportunity to back up and heal. The black-haired swordsman opened his inventory to take out a bleed-potion in order to cure the low level bleed effect the boss had caused him. Looking back, his friends were also healing, and further to the right, Argo was also using potions. But suddenly…

"Engage!"

Seven of the twenty players currently healing, seven left the back and ran towards the downed boss. Seven members of the ALS rushed to attack the downed boss, without the necessary wait until the remaining players backed up.

The grin in Kabaou's face showed both that he had seen the red gleaming in its eyes, and that it was more than late to force them to back. Seven voices, coming from Kirito, Asuna, Walker, Diavel, Rain, Argo, and Kibaou himself, cried out a warning, but it was too late.

"Don't! Back!"

Suddenly, the four-meter skeletal creature got up and gripped its scythe with both hands. The gigantic weapon gleamed with a color unseen for anyone in the room, black. Soon after, it spun around and hit the seven rushing players, along with some of the ones that were trying to back up, sending them to the red HP zone, and also being "generous" enough to also give them a paralisys status, making them pretty much cannon fodder.

But the boss didnt stop there. With its left hand, he ripped a piece of its robe and, by magic or some weird thing, it set itself on fire. It wasnt long befote the entire room was covered with black, dense smoke, making it impossible to see anything further away from someone's nose.

It was at that moment when Rain thanked Kirito to have told her to equip the searching skill. She still couldnt see anything, but through the smoke she could see her partner's names and HP gauges.

In front of her, a red cursor appeared amng with four HP bars, all of them depleted except from the last one, which had at most one or two pixels left. While she was wondering if she could take it down on her own, she felt something strange at his right. When she looked there, a yellow cursor flew past her.

An NPC? Here? The though clearly surprised her, not because it was impossible to bring NPCs to battle, seen how they had brought Kizmel, but because Kizmel was the ONLY one they had brought.

Wait, that isn't yellow, it is…… orange?!

The sudden surprise of an orange player bursting through the boss room and clearly heading towards the low HP boss made her run towards it too in a desperate attempt to deny it.

When she arrived at the boss, she realized that near it, the dense smoke didnt exist. In fact, she could see the orange player, with a blue, hooded robe.Thank to his outfit, she couldnt see his face, but she wouldnt have seen it either since he was facing the boss. The blue-wearing stranger prepared to land the most basic curved sword sword skill, Reaver. At the same time, aiming for the strager's back, Rain prepared a Sonic Leap. The brown-haired girl shot forward, and when she was about to reach the blue stranger, a yellow cursor popped to her left.

Another one?! Was the one and only thing she could think about before an upwards strike collided with her sword. Given normal and logic physical laws, Rain had an immense advantage with her downward slash, but it took all her strength just to hold her own ground against the shape with a worn-out robe that had just appeared. Finally, the obvious happened.

A thin crack appeared in the Anneal Blade 6, quickly growing until it covered the entire blade. Soon after, it broke into two, leaving Rain unarmed. Still, she managed

to land an uppercut that made her opponent stagger. While he managed to stand, Rain assumed a boxing-like stance (not really boxing, though), prepared to fight back even if its opponent had a sword. But when the unknown shape turned around and she saw his face, her arms refused to move.

She had seen several skeletal masks. That floor had some skeletons as monsters too, so she had seen plenty of them until that moment, but she didn't expect to see one, using a sword and being able to almost to kill her after one hit. One that definitely wasnt using a mask.

"W-W-Wha….?!"

She dropped to the floor and landed on her lower back, now her legs unable to move from the sudden shock. So was it, that she almost didn't notice the explosion of polygons that announced the death of the boss. All she could think about was the monster in front of her. Behind it, and just in case the poor brown-haired girl wasn't confused enough, a female voice hurried the skeleton.

"Gokken, we gotta go, we can't let them see us!"

And as a last surprise, seriously threatening of giving the girl a mental breakdown, the skeleton monster answered in a deep voice.

"Give me a second, Philia."

The skeleton, apparently named Gokken, kneeled in front of Rain and took a sword from his back, while sheathing his other weapon.

"I am sorry."

Having kneeled, Rain could see the skeletom closer. Like the other robbed shape, he also wore a cloak. However, even if his cloak seemed to be more like the one a king or someone like that would wear, it was completely worn out. His sword had a beautiful pattern, seemingly based on a dragon-like creature. But as supposed, what make the poor girl so confused was his face, the one of a skeleton.

"Someone's sword is someone's pride. Take care of this."

Having said those words, he carefully put the sword and its scabbard in the hesitant, girl's arms, her eyes wide open, and stood to run as fast as he could towards the door in the end of the room.

With Rain still having his poor mind trying to gather the info of the last thirty seconds, Kirito, Asuna and the info broker Argo arrived at her place. The black swordsman, as soon as he saw the new sword in the girl's arms, picked it up and equipped it as fast as he could. The girls rushed by her side and checked everything, from her HP bar to her hair.

"Rain-chan! Rain-chan! Are you okay?!"

As the second in command in the Aincrad Liberation Squad arrived too with a worrier gaze, Rain seemed to be finally able to think again.

"T-There was…. A girl… and a skeleton."

Those words made the group even more worried. Asuna seemed to be panicking.

"Argo-chan! Is it possible to allucinate in any way in this world?!"

"No. There is no such a thing in SAO. Funny mushrooms aren't a thing here. What….?"

"You bastard!"

Apart from Rain, the two clearers, the info broker, and the dark elf that just had arrived, comically frowned at the same time at the hearing of the cactus-haired man. He was, without a doubt, a valuable member of the clear team, a great leader for his guild and whatever he believed himself to be, but being a respectable and nice human being wasnt particularly his strenght.

"You did it again, didn't ya!? You stole yet another Last Attack bonus! Just how selfish can you be, you fucking….!"

"Not this again, Kibaou!"

With a scream she usually kept for raids to shout suggestions and orders, Asuna replied, under the surprised sight of her friends. She was, by rule, a calm girl, that never ever yelled other than to call Kirito stupid or something, but seeing how her friend got scolded by such a waste of person made her blood boil.

"Stop that bullshit already, you know that he doesn't do it on purpose! He has done more to clear this place and take us home than any of you!"

With an angry gaze, the rapier user pointed her finger at all the raid members, as if she wanted to… blame them for something? Nobody truly knew what was coming across the defiant eyes of the chestnut haired girl. Ignoring her, Kibaou resumed his rant.

"Huh, you are not gonna laugh like you did in floor 1, you dirty beater?! Show us your true self!"

Meanwhile, Kirito approached the club user that served as the vice-commander of the ALS. However, Walker's gaze could not be met. He was kneeled in a specific point of the boss room, as if he was looking for something.

"What was his name?"

With what, for him, was a whisper, but given his voice, strong and powerful, sounded like him just speaking normally, Walker answered.

"Kotetsu. He was called Kotetsu. He... didn't deserve it."

"I… see."

"What do you mean by that, you black scum?!"

Slowly, while looking at the ground, Kirito turned around to face Kibaou, the black swordsman's gaze never meeting the guildmaster's. Hesitantly, it took a few seconds for him to get started.

"You wanted to know why I don't laugh now like I did in floor one. Here is the reason." pointing at the place where Walker, who had now stood up, was, Kirito continued. "Back then, we all escaped alive by the skin of our teeth, we all survived, some in better shape and some by luck. And it has been like that ever since for the front liners. But here, today, the first member of the clear team has been taken down. I thought people would be more careful after what happened to Diavel, but seemingly it ain't the case."

It was then when all the players in the room came to the grim realization. Kibaou and all his six remaining guildmates paled, Walker's hand became white of how hard he was gripping his club, and Asuna, who had not noticed it happening, put her hand over her mouth, tears slowly welling up in her eyes.

"No way!"

"C'mon, Kotetsu, get outta hiding, enough of a joke!"

Now facing the now smaller guild, Kirito continued.

"This should tell you how things are going to be from now on. We can't risk losing people. As much of a son of a bitch you say I am, I want to go back home, and I can't do so if you all die on us and we fight carelessly. The concept of YOLO doesn't apply here. Now, I please ask you to hold a minute of silence or something like that., not only for the lost in combat, bur for all the people that have died so far. And happy new year to ya'all. I will take my friends and go away now."

That said, and waving his (Rain's) new sword, the black swordsman walked towards the end of the room, and after a few second, was followed by his friends, even if Rain was being aided by Argo and Asuna.

In the room they were leaving, no one dared to speak. The atmosphere darkened to an extreme that not even the first moments after Kayaba's message could achieve. Only one thought flew through all the player's. That day was a day to remember in the SAO incident story. The first clearer had died. Not even Kibaou wanted to speak when Kirito left the room with his friends and what they supposed was the Last Attack bonus.

23:52 December 31st, Yurime, Floor 6, Aincrad.

The last day of their first year on the death game had been a tiring one, with loads of ups and downs. For the good part, another floor had been cleared and they were closer to the end, but it had not come without a price. That day would for sure be remembered by all the members of the clearing team. And Argo, who belonged to the scout team.

And then there was was had happened to Rain.

"So, Rain-chan, what happened again?"

"I….don't know, Asuna-san. It all happened too fast. After that smoke wall popped, I saw an orange player running towards it. And when I tried to follow a skeleton NPC launched a Slant and broke my sword."

They had got a quick version of it, but now, they all were sitting on the outskirts of Yurime, the main city for floor 6. A good supply of food and hot chocolate, courtesy of Kirito and Asuna, accompanied them in New Year.

"That is really weird, Rain-chan. We didn't bring any N… any other ally to the fight other than Kizmel."

"The swordmasters don't like Aincrad people. They wouldn't bring them to the fight."

"Hmm." the black swordsman hummed and looked at the chestnut-haired girl, then at the dark elf, followed by the info broker, and finally the brown-haired swordswoman. "Any other specific detail?"

"They…. They had robes. A worn out brown one and a new blue one. The girl called him Gokken and he called her Phillia"

Both Kirito and Asuna choked with their hot chocolate, almost giving Rain a late shower. Behind them, Argo angrily replied.

"Fuck! I should've remembered!"

All the group turned to face her. The info broker started to explain.

"Ya know, Aa-chan, apparently, a blue robbed player injured someone and after it, every player goin' into the field and comin' across with her ended up attackin' her, because they though she was a murderer. Everyone was repelled though. But the strangest thing is that all of them reported 'a shadowy shape with a worn-out robe' helpin' her."

"And we saw them in the boss meeting earlier."

"Just who are these two?"

The atmosphere in the group once again changed in favor of a calmed one, more suited for thinking and theories. The unknown girl and her NPC could have a lot of different reasons, from actively being trying to delay Aincrad's end to just wanting to annoy the clear team, but none of them could do anything other than theorize about her motivations.

"And by the way, Kirito-kun, why did you put a bullseye on your back again?"

The black-haired boy sighed, but carefully explained it to the girl.

"Asuna, in the first floor, I put the hate of an entire 8000 people on me to prevent Argo and the beta testers from getting targeted. You think I wouldn't do the same for my friends?"

"Fair enough."

Once again back to thinking. The possible identity of the two and their reasonfloated between their heads for a while. In the end, and like if he had remembered something, Kirito stood up and manipulated his menu, materializing a sword.

"This weapon here isn't the "Ivory Slicer" that drops from this boss, and if what you told us is accurate, then we have a rogue NPC and an orange player derping around with a nice sword. But by some weird reason, the same NPC, supposedly generic like EVERY ONE here, felt guilty and gave this to you."

"Y...Yes?"

"My inner gamer is getting too old for this. Anyways, this is yours, keep it."

And that said, the gamer approached Rain with a smile and put the heavy sword in her arms. Then, he went back to seating between Asuna and Argo.

"We are one minute away from New Year. I meant what I said before. Would you all join me in a minute of silence?"

Asuna stared at Kirito right in the eyes.

"Of course, Kirito-kun."

Three girls, an elf and an awkward teenager looked at the night sky. Seeing how they were on the edge of the 6th floor, they could see the sky outside of Aincrad, and unlike inside of it, that world's sky had a moon, real stars. None of them had actually stopped and looked outside of the castle, less so at night. The sky outside Aincrad endlessly expanded to where you would lose your sight of it. Under it, a few snowy peaks pierced through the clouds, unwilling to surrend to the skies. Here and there, small floating islands orbited Aincrad, all of it making a beautiful balance. And when they thought nothing could be better than looking at the endless sky, the fireworks started.

A little bit of red here, yellow there, a tiny hint of green over it them two, and golden. Like if the sun had just exploded into an infinite burst of light, on every single explosion. Chains of fire from left to right, back and forth. An enlightening show for a new year would for sure never be forgot.

Next to Kirito, Asuna let out a small sob.

"You know, this is the first time I spend Christmas away from home."

"Asuna…"

"Asuna-san."

Kizmel squeezed her shoulder with a firm hand, and Rain looked at her with her best 'I am sorry' face, but the definite surprise came from Argo. She trapped Asuna in a tight hug, something she had never, ever done to anyone other than to Kirito, given that she wasn't someone who liked that kind of things that much.

"Don't ya worry, Aa-chan. We will all work together so you can spend Christmas with your family the soonest possible, did ya hear me? We all promise."

Kirito, suddenly sunk into thinking what his sister would be doing, came back to the world.

"I promise."

Rain, who was still staring at Asuna, sheated her new sword and joined them.

"I promise."

The dark elf, almost invisible under the light of the fireworks, squeezed Asuna's shoulder even harder.

"I promise."

Still letting out sobs, like she hadn't done in years, and like, even if in their rooms, Kirito, Rain and even Argo would find themselves doing later that night, looked around her, at the hand on her shoulder, the petite shape trapping her in a hug, the brown haired girl looking at her and the warm smile from a black-haired beater, found herself unable to stop her sobs.

"I….I…. Thank you, guys. Happy New Year"

 **This... is awkward. How long has it been, 8 months or so? I feel like if I had made anyone who read this wait to long. I just didnt feel like writing, and then PS4 came, and things happened. Well, that kind of shitty excuses.** **But I'll leave this here. Just in case someome wants to read it. After watching Ordinal Scale, I felt like writing this again for a while. As usual, any review would be aporeciated and that stuff.**


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